Introducing Pucklebaby [2/2]
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Puck/Rachel
Word Count: 3008
Disclaimer: Don't own.
Author's Note: I meant to have this out earlier but then I got a sinus infection and had a constant headache. But, it's finally here.
Rachel's Wedding Dress
Puck's Gift to Rachel
Puck pushed Rachel back onto her (their) mattress and slid his hands up her sides under her shirt. He ran a hand along her stomach and noticed the firmness of her belly. He looked up at her with a giddy grin.
“Baby, you’ve got a little bump!” he said excitedly. Rachel leaned up on her elbows and glanced down, her expression matching his. She pushed his hand away and placed her own in the center and her grin turned into a smile and she met Puck’s eyes. She jumped up and walked over to the wall.
“Noah, grab the camera! We have to take a picture,” she said admiring her bump in the mirror above her dresser. It was barely noticeable but it was there all the same. She stood in front of the newly painted wall (Puck refused to sleep in a room where Polly Pocket and Strawberry Shortcake came to hookup), holding her shirt up while he snapped a close-up of her tummy and then a full body shot. She took the camera from him and flipped between the two pictures with her trademark Rachel Berry smile.
“S’real, huh?” Puck said, looking over her shoulder at the pictures. She turned around to face him.
“Yes,” she said, “PB is real.” His face scrunched up in confusion.
“PB?” He questioned. A mischievous glint appeared in her eyes.
“It’s short for Pucklebaby.” Puck groaned but he couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. She leaned up to kiss him and he met her halfway, crushing his lips against hers.
“Back to where we were before PB showed up,” he said against her mouth, backing her up towards the bed.
…
The weather on the day of the wedding was perfect. The late August sun didn’t blaze too harshly and the sky was completely devoid of clouds. The ceremony and reception were taking place in the beautifully tended backyard of the Lopez mansion (It still freaked Rachel out how nice Santana had been to her lately).
Kurt rushed into the room. He was working double duty as the Man of Honor and the wedding planner and was constantly in an out of the house making sure everything was perfect. He grabbed the garment bag containing the wedding dress he bought her as a wedding present and held it up in front of her.
“Let’s hope it still fits since PB decided to make an appearance two days ago,” he said unzipping the bag.
“Kurt, my stomach barely sticks out, I’m sure it will fit. And, now that I have breasts, it might even look better,” Rachel said, placing her hands on her recently developed chest for emphasis.
He held the dress over her head and brought it down across her body. Tears filled her eyes as she looked at herself in the mirror. She was really getting married. To Noah Puckerman. It was a dream and a joke all at once. She dated, was engaged to, and was now marrying him in the span of a summer. And, they were having a baby. It seemed ridiculous that Rachel Berry would move this quickly with someone, especially while still in high school, but in all honesty, she knew from the time that she was four that she would marry him. It was just happening a little sooner than she had originally planned.
“Oh no, no tears! We don’t have time to retouch your makeup. We have to go now,” Kurt said grabbing her bouquet and Kleenex so she could dab her eyes. He helped her down the stairs and when they lined up, he gave Puck’s little sister, Sarah, the signal to start scattering rose petals down the aisle, and then he followed behind her. Both of Rachel’s dads wanted to accompany her down the aisle and they stood on either side of her.
When they reached the doorway, the music changed and everyone stood to look at her. It was a very small ceremony, mostly family, friends from temple, the glee club, Mr. Schue and Ms. Holliday, and a few of Puck’s fight club friends and some football players. She didn’t see anyone. She only saw him.
Standing under the canopy in a black tux, he was her dream. His face broke into the smile he reserved just for her when she first stepped out and as he met her eyes, she returned it. Once they reached the huppah, each of her dads kissed her cheek and shook Puck’s hand.
After Rabbi Weinstein said his blessings and they exchanged rings, Puck pulled Rachel to him tightly and kissed her passionately. When they parted he raised his leg and stomped the wineglass, shattering it to a chorus of “Mazel Tov!” from their guests. The new Mr. and Mrs. Noah Puckerman walked down the aisle back towards the house and their future together.
…
They took photographs, they danced to “The Way You Look Tonight” by Frank Sinatra (Puck sang the entire song in her ear as he held her close), they cut cake, and then they ran through the bubbles their guests were blowing onto the path.
Once they were inside the limousine, Puck wrapped his arm around Rachel and buried his face in her neck.
“You’re my wife,” he said peppering kisses along her collarbone. She giggled and pulled his face towards hers.
“And, you’re my husband,” she placed a gentle kiss on his lips and looked deeply into his eyes, “forever.” His eyes turned dark and he nipped at her lips.
“You bet your hot little ass.”
Her dads surprised them with a weeklong honeymoon to New York, complete with tickets to Les Misérables and Wicked. Their week consisted of compromise; during the day they went to every museum or any other variety of touristy things Rachel wanted to do and by night they check out cool music venues and had lots of married sex (which for some reason is a lot better).
Puck was starting to think marriage was fucking awesome. Until school started.
…
It’s no surprise that in a town as small as Lima everyone knew about the Puckermans by the time classes started back up in September, but no one outside of their circle knew about the baby, although it was widely speculated.
On the first day it seemed as if the entire Cheerio squad wanted a first hand look at Puck’s ring finger and they swarmed him any time Rachel wasn’t around. Once all of McKinley knew their marriage hadn’t been a rumor, their eyes were glued to Rachel’s belly, waiting for it to protrude from her animal sweater. Glee rehearsal had been a little awkward even though everyone there had attended their union.
“It’s still kind of surreal that you two are married,” Mr. Schue joked, “I feel like you should be going on double dates with Holly and I, or something.” Rachel humored him but Puck just raised an eyebrow. Finn raised his hand.
“Does this mean that Puck’s going to be the new male lead since he’s married to Rachel?”
Mr. Schue shook his head, “Guys, nothing’s going to change just because Puck and Rachel are married. In fact,” he said turning to the couple in question, “I need you to be able to create the same chemistry with everyone else.” She nodded in agreement.
“Mr. Schue, I am nothing but professional,” Rachel said grabbing her husband’s hand, “and so is Noah.”
When they tried to practice a new song Finn awkwardly touched Rachel and looked uncomfortable the entire time and kept glancing over his shoulder to make sure Puck wasn’t about to kill him. Mr. Schue sighed and canceled practice for the day, telling everyone to look up professionalism and apply it next time.
Puck dropped Rachel off at home before heading to Sheets-N-Things. He picked up more shifts because the Berrys made it clear that even though they lived in their house free of rent, the newlyweds still had to be responsible adults and pay for things when the baby came.
She had just put on a pair of shorts and a tank top after stepping out of the shower when she heard the front door close. She waited for him to come upstairs but when he didn’t she went down to meet him. She found him reclining on the couch watching highlights on ESPN and rolled her eyes.
“Noah, don’t you think you should be doing your homework? It’s ten-thirty and we have school in the morning,” she asked sitting on the edge of the couch next to him.
“I’ll do it later, Rach, just let me watch the highlights,” he groaned.
“When is later? Now that we’re married you have to be responsible and go to bed at a decent hour.”
“God, please stop riding me,” he rubbed a hand over his face and then quirked an eyebrow, “actually, do you want to ride me? It would make the shitty night I had at work so much better.” He reached out for her but she stood up and avoided his grasp.
“Noah, this is serious. You have to graduate this year. You have a family to take care of,” she placed her hands on her hips and he rolled his eyes but turned off the television, “I’ll even help you.”
“Ok, but can we work out some kind of reward system?” Rachel shot him an exasperated look before turning on her heel and marching upstairs. He picked up his backpack and followed behind her.
…
By mid-October she stopped trying to hide her growing baby bump and traded her miniskirts in for dresses, much like the ones Quinn wore when she was pregnant. She and Puck developed a sort of routine: she made breakfast, he drove them to school, he finished all of his homework during his study period, they went to glee, he dropped her off before work, she did her thing while waiting for him to come home, they ate dinner together, and then they just hung out before going to bed.
On days when she had doctor’s appointments one of her dads or Kurt would take her. He hated missing them but getting off work that often was like begging Terri to fire him and he really needed the job. He was there for the really important ones: the very first sonogram, hearing the heartbeat, and finding out they were having a boy. Rachel sobbed and maybe one or two badass tears might have slipped from his eyes. (Fuck you, he’s having a son.)
That night Puck sang to their son while she stroked his hair and tried to envision what he would look like and what his personality might turn out to be. She couldn’t help but want him to look exactly like his dad but behave like her. She hoped he would be musically inclined, it would just be weird if he weren’t. While she was daydreaming she didn’t realized Puck had stopped singing until she felt him place a kiss on her stomach and rest his head there.
“We should start thinking of names,” she said quietly.
“What about David?” he asked, meeting her eyes.
“David is so Jewish,” she whined. Puck raised an eyebrow.
“Baby, we are Jewish,” he said slowly.
“I know but there are at least twenty Davids in our temple alone. How about John?”
“Nope, way too fucking common.”
“Oh, and Davids not?” She giggled.
“Whatever. I know! Ezra’s a pretty cool name.”
“I like it,” she said and then her eyes lit up, “but, oh, I love the name Caleb.”
“Caleb it is.” He turned to her stomach and rubbed it, “Caleb, I can’t wait to meet you buddy.”
…
Rachel was six months along when sectionals rolled around right before winter break. Their families celebrated Hanukkah together and the Berry residence. Puck gave her a hammered star necklace with a lowercase “c” stamped in the center and a freshwater pearl charm, which she loved. She bought him tickets to a Columbus Blue Jackets game and he actually dropped down to the floor and bowed in front of her. Their parents chipped in and bought them a crib, a changing table, and fully loaded stroller.
As Rachel was growing larger, glee rehearsals were getting much harder. She honestly didn’t know how Quinn did it when she was pregnant. She was always exhausted, her back hurt, and her hormones were making her even crazier than usual. She changed the choreography every day and it seemed no one was performing up to her standards. Everyone put up with it because they knew they needed her but the boiling point came two days before sectionals when Rachel told Santana she wasn’t doing a move correctly.
“Look, dwarf, I’ve been putting up with you because you’re carry Puckerman’s spawn and he’s my bro but you've gone too far. Everyone knows I’m a fucking awesome dancer, you need to chill out,” she said grabbing her bag, “We look great, I’m done with this. Later bitches.”
Everyone just watched as she walked out of the choir room and then looked at Rachel for her reaction. She simply walked to a chair and sat down as gracefully as she could and ended practice for the day. When everyone but Puck left she started sobbing into his shirt.
“Am I really that awful?” she choked out, “I feel like I look uncomfortable because I am uncomfortable and I just want us to be perfect.” He rubbed her back reassuringly.
“Baby, we are perfect. You’re perfect. You don’t look uncomfortable,” he said burying his face in her hair.
“Really? Even though I’m huge and I have all this extra weight on me?” she prodded. He smiled; she was always fishing for compliments.
“Really. And you’re not huge, you’re beautiful.” He kissed the top of her head and prayed this would hold her over for a while before she went on her next crazy tirade.
Puck and Santana were right, they were phenomenal and won sectionals unanimously, which shifted Rachel focus to the next important event occurring in her life: Caleb’s arrival.
…
Her due date of March fourteenth came and went. She tried every method she could find of how to induce labor and eventually gave up. He finally decided he wanted out and after twelve hours of labor, Caleb Noah Puckerman took his first breaths on March seventeenth. Rachel immediately decided he was going to be her good luck charm.
Puck was speechless. When Beth was born, she was beautiful and wonderful, but she wasn’t really his. Caleb was his son to love and raise and he was magnificent. He had a dark patch of hair and after a few days his grayish eyes turned to the same hazel color as his father’s. In short, he was perfect.
Rachel was able to take a month off from school and spent her days cramming homework in between breastfeeding and napping when her eyes refused to stay open. She knew it was going to be hard and exhausting but knowing and actually doing were two different things. Luckily her dad, Jonathan, worked at home as a financial planner and would give her a break on days when his workload was lighter.
When it was time to back to school, Rachel cried for days in anticipation of having to be separated from her son. When she and Puck dropped Caleb off at his Nana Connie’s house before school she only let a few tears slip but was miserable the entire day. Not even a solo could fully cheer her up.
…
There were two packets from Ohio State University awaiting Rachel when she arrived home one April afternoon. She placed Caleb’s carrier on the coffee table as she studied the two packets. They were the same size, which caused her heart to jump. She was sure they both got in.
They had decided together that it was smarter to go to OSU Lima for two years and then move on to the Columbus campus that way they could stay at home and save their money and Nana Connie could still watch Caleb. She didn’t think she’d be ready for him to go to a daycare center in two years but it was really the only option she had.
When Puck got home from work, they confirmed her suspicions and celebrated. That night, when they were cuddling after an intense make out session (the doctor still hadn’t given Rachel the green light for sex), a thought occurred to Puck.
“Rach, are you sure you don’t mind delaying your dreams? ‘Cause I’m sure we could find a way to make it work in the city,” he said kissing along her bare shoulder.
“Don’t be silly, Noah, I am living my dream. I have a wonderful husband and a beautiful son,” she turned to face him, “Broadway will always be there but my family is here now and there’s no other place I want to be.” He grinned down at her before capturing her lips.
…
She eventually made it to Broadway by the time she was thirty after their second son Ezra surprised them shortly after college graduation (everyone joked that for someone so smart, Rachel seemed to have trouble with birth control). Puck got a job on Wall Street, which helped them live relatively comfortable by New York standards until she landed the role of Elphaba in Wicked.
Puck took their boys to the opening night performance and they clapped the loudest out of anyone in the audience. After they put Caleb and Ezra to bed, Puck and Rachel sat in their spacious living room with a glass of wine each. He gripped her tightly to him.
“Baby, we fucking did it,” he said, “we’re living the dream.” She grinned up at him and pressed her lips to his.
“Yes, Noah, we fucking did it,” she laughed. He gazed at her adoringly. He fell in love with her a little more every day.
Pairing: Puck/Rachel
Word Count: 3008
Disclaimer: Don't own.
Author's Note: I meant to have this out earlier but then I got a sinus infection and had a constant headache. But, it's finally here.
Rachel's Wedding Dress
Puck's Gift to Rachel
Puck pushed Rachel back onto her (their) mattress and slid his hands up her sides under her shirt. He ran a hand along her stomach and noticed the firmness of her belly. He looked up at her with a giddy grin.
“Baby, you’ve got a little bump!” he said excitedly. Rachel leaned up on her elbows and glanced down, her expression matching his. She pushed his hand away and placed her own in the center and her grin turned into a smile and she met Puck’s eyes. She jumped up and walked over to the wall.
“Noah, grab the camera! We have to take a picture,” she said admiring her bump in the mirror above her dresser. It was barely noticeable but it was there all the same. She stood in front of the newly painted wall (Puck refused to sleep in a room where Polly Pocket and Strawberry Shortcake came to hookup), holding her shirt up while he snapped a close-up of her tummy and then a full body shot. She took the camera from him and flipped between the two pictures with her trademark Rachel Berry smile.
“S’real, huh?” Puck said, looking over her shoulder at the pictures. She turned around to face him.
“Yes,” she said, “PB is real.” His face scrunched up in confusion.
“PB?” He questioned. A mischievous glint appeared in her eyes.
“It’s short for Pucklebaby.” Puck groaned but he couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. She leaned up to kiss him and he met her halfway, crushing his lips against hers.
“Back to where we were before PB showed up,” he said against her mouth, backing her up towards the bed.
…
The weather on the day of the wedding was perfect. The late August sun didn’t blaze too harshly and the sky was completely devoid of clouds. The ceremony and reception were taking place in the beautifully tended backyard of the Lopez mansion (It still freaked Rachel out how nice Santana had been to her lately).
Kurt rushed into the room. He was working double duty as the Man of Honor and the wedding planner and was constantly in an out of the house making sure everything was perfect. He grabbed the garment bag containing the wedding dress he bought her as a wedding present and held it up in front of her.
“Let’s hope it still fits since PB decided to make an appearance two days ago,” he said unzipping the bag.
“Kurt, my stomach barely sticks out, I’m sure it will fit. And, now that I have breasts, it might even look better,” Rachel said, placing her hands on her recently developed chest for emphasis.
He held the dress over her head and brought it down across her body. Tears filled her eyes as she looked at herself in the mirror. She was really getting married. To Noah Puckerman. It was a dream and a joke all at once. She dated, was engaged to, and was now marrying him in the span of a summer. And, they were having a baby. It seemed ridiculous that Rachel Berry would move this quickly with someone, especially while still in high school, but in all honesty, she knew from the time that she was four that she would marry him. It was just happening a little sooner than she had originally planned.
“Oh no, no tears! We don’t have time to retouch your makeup. We have to go now,” Kurt said grabbing her bouquet and Kleenex so she could dab her eyes. He helped her down the stairs and when they lined up, he gave Puck’s little sister, Sarah, the signal to start scattering rose petals down the aisle, and then he followed behind her. Both of Rachel’s dads wanted to accompany her down the aisle and they stood on either side of her.
When they reached the doorway, the music changed and everyone stood to look at her. It was a very small ceremony, mostly family, friends from temple, the glee club, Mr. Schue and Ms. Holliday, and a few of Puck’s fight club friends and some football players. She didn’t see anyone. She only saw him.
Standing under the canopy in a black tux, he was her dream. His face broke into the smile he reserved just for her when she first stepped out and as he met her eyes, she returned it. Once they reached the huppah, each of her dads kissed her cheek and shook Puck’s hand.
After Rabbi Weinstein said his blessings and they exchanged rings, Puck pulled Rachel to him tightly and kissed her passionately. When they parted he raised his leg and stomped the wineglass, shattering it to a chorus of “Mazel Tov!” from their guests. The new Mr. and Mrs. Noah Puckerman walked down the aisle back towards the house and their future together.
…
They took photographs, they danced to “The Way You Look Tonight” by Frank Sinatra (Puck sang the entire song in her ear as he held her close), they cut cake, and then they ran through the bubbles their guests were blowing onto the path.
Once they were inside the limousine, Puck wrapped his arm around Rachel and buried his face in her neck.
“You’re my wife,” he said peppering kisses along her collarbone. She giggled and pulled his face towards hers.
“And, you’re my husband,” she placed a gentle kiss on his lips and looked deeply into his eyes, “forever.” His eyes turned dark and he nipped at her lips.
“You bet your hot little ass.”
Her dads surprised them with a weeklong honeymoon to New York, complete with tickets to Les Misérables and Wicked. Their week consisted of compromise; during the day they went to every museum or any other variety of touristy things Rachel wanted to do and by night they check out cool music venues and had lots of married sex (which for some reason is a lot better).
Puck was starting to think marriage was fucking awesome. Until school started.
…
It’s no surprise that in a town as small as Lima everyone knew about the Puckermans by the time classes started back up in September, but no one outside of their circle knew about the baby, although it was widely speculated.
On the first day it seemed as if the entire Cheerio squad wanted a first hand look at Puck’s ring finger and they swarmed him any time Rachel wasn’t around. Once all of McKinley knew their marriage hadn’t been a rumor, their eyes were glued to Rachel’s belly, waiting for it to protrude from her animal sweater. Glee rehearsal had been a little awkward even though everyone there had attended their union.
“It’s still kind of surreal that you two are married,” Mr. Schue joked, “I feel like you should be going on double dates with Holly and I, or something.” Rachel humored him but Puck just raised an eyebrow. Finn raised his hand.
“Does this mean that Puck’s going to be the new male lead since he’s married to Rachel?”
Mr. Schue shook his head, “Guys, nothing’s going to change just because Puck and Rachel are married. In fact,” he said turning to the couple in question, “I need you to be able to create the same chemistry with everyone else.” She nodded in agreement.
“Mr. Schue, I am nothing but professional,” Rachel said grabbing her husband’s hand, “and so is Noah.”
When they tried to practice a new song Finn awkwardly touched Rachel and looked uncomfortable the entire time and kept glancing over his shoulder to make sure Puck wasn’t about to kill him. Mr. Schue sighed and canceled practice for the day, telling everyone to look up professionalism and apply it next time.
Puck dropped Rachel off at home before heading to Sheets-N-Things. He picked up more shifts because the Berrys made it clear that even though they lived in their house free of rent, the newlyweds still had to be responsible adults and pay for things when the baby came.
She had just put on a pair of shorts and a tank top after stepping out of the shower when she heard the front door close. She waited for him to come upstairs but when he didn’t she went down to meet him. She found him reclining on the couch watching highlights on ESPN and rolled her eyes.
“Noah, don’t you think you should be doing your homework? It’s ten-thirty and we have school in the morning,” she asked sitting on the edge of the couch next to him.
“I’ll do it later, Rach, just let me watch the highlights,” he groaned.
“When is later? Now that we’re married you have to be responsible and go to bed at a decent hour.”
“God, please stop riding me,” he rubbed a hand over his face and then quirked an eyebrow, “actually, do you want to ride me? It would make the shitty night I had at work so much better.” He reached out for her but she stood up and avoided his grasp.
“Noah, this is serious. You have to graduate this year. You have a family to take care of,” she placed her hands on her hips and he rolled his eyes but turned off the television, “I’ll even help you.”
“Ok, but can we work out some kind of reward system?” Rachel shot him an exasperated look before turning on her heel and marching upstairs. He picked up his backpack and followed behind her.
…
By mid-October she stopped trying to hide her growing baby bump and traded her miniskirts in for dresses, much like the ones Quinn wore when she was pregnant. She and Puck developed a sort of routine: she made breakfast, he drove them to school, he finished all of his homework during his study period, they went to glee, he dropped her off before work, she did her thing while waiting for him to come home, they ate dinner together, and then they just hung out before going to bed.
On days when she had doctor’s appointments one of her dads or Kurt would take her. He hated missing them but getting off work that often was like begging Terri to fire him and he really needed the job. He was there for the really important ones: the very first sonogram, hearing the heartbeat, and finding out they were having a boy. Rachel sobbed and maybe one or two badass tears might have slipped from his eyes. (Fuck you, he’s having a son.)
That night Puck sang to their son while she stroked his hair and tried to envision what he would look like and what his personality might turn out to be. She couldn’t help but want him to look exactly like his dad but behave like her. She hoped he would be musically inclined, it would just be weird if he weren’t. While she was daydreaming she didn’t realized Puck had stopped singing until she felt him place a kiss on her stomach and rest his head there.
“We should start thinking of names,” she said quietly.
“What about David?” he asked, meeting her eyes.
“David is so Jewish,” she whined. Puck raised an eyebrow.
“Baby, we are Jewish,” he said slowly.
“I know but there are at least twenty Davids in our temple alone. How about John?”
“Nope, way too fucking common.”
“Oh, and Davids not?” She giggled.
“Whatever. I know! Ezra’s a pretty cool name.”
“I like it,” she said and then her eyes lit up, “but, oh, I love the name Caleb.”
“Caleb it is.” He turned to her stomach and rubbed it, “Caleb, I can’t wait to meet you buddy.”
…
Rachel was six months along when sectionals rolled around right before winter break. Their families celebrated Hanukkah together and the Berry residence. Puck gave her a hammered star necklace with a lowercase “c” stamped in the center and a freshwater pearl charm, which she loved. She bought him tickets to a Columbus Blue Jackets game and he actually dropped down to the floor and bowed in front of her. Their parents chipped in and bought them a crib, a changing table, and fully loaded stroller.
As Rachel was growing larger, glee rehearsals were getting much harder. She honestly didn’t know how Quinn did it when she was pregnant. She was always exhausted, her back hurt, and her hormones were making her even crazier than usual. She changed the choreography every day and it seemed no one was performing up to her standards. Everyone put up with it because they knew they needed her but the boiling point came two days before sectionals when Rachel told Santana she wasn’t doing a move correctly.
“Look, dwarf, I’ve been putting up with you because you’re carry Puckerman’s spawn and he’s my bro but you've gone too far. Everyone knows I’m a fucking awesome dancer, you need to chill out,” she said grabbing her bag, “We look great, I’m done with this. Later bitches.”
Everyone just watched as she walked out of the choir room and then looked at Rachel for her reaction. She simply walked to a chair and sat down as gracefully as she could and ended practice for the day. When everyone but Puck left she started sobbing into his shirt.
“Am I really that awful?” she choked out, “I feel like I look uncomfortable because I am uncomfortable and I just want us to be perfect.” He rubbed her back reassuringly.
“Baby, we are perfect. You’re perfect. You don’t look uncomfortable,” he said burying his face in her hair.
“Really? Even though I’m huge and I have all this extra weight on me?” she prodded. He smiled; she was always fishing for compliments.
“Really. And you’re not huge, you’re beautiful.” He kissed the top of her head and prayed this would hold her over for a while before she went on her next crazy tirade.
Puck and Santana were right, they were phenomenal and won sectionals unanimously, which shifted Rachel focus to the next important event occurring in her life: Caleb’s arrival.
…
Her due date of March fourteenth came and went. She tried every method she could find of how to induce labor and eventually gave up. He finally decided he wanted out and after twelve hours of labor, Caleb Noah Puckerman took his first breaths on March seventeenth. Rachel immediately decided he was going to be her good luck charm.
Puck was speechless. When Beth was born, she was beautiful and wonderful, but she wasn’t really his. Caleb was his son to love and raise and he was magnificent. He had a dark patch of hair and after a few days his grayish eyes turned to the same hazel color as his father’s. In short, he was perfect.
Rachel was able to take a month off from school and spent her days cramming homework in between breastfeeding and napping when her eyes refused to stay open. She knew it was going to be hard and exhausting but knowing and actually doing were two different things. Luckily her dad, Jonathan, worked at home as a financial planner and would give her a break on days when his workload was lighter.
When it was time to back to school, Rachel cried for days in anticipation of having to be separated from her son. When she and Puck dropped Caleb off at his Nana Connie’s house before school she only let a few tears slip but was miserable the entire day. Not even a solo could fully cheer her up.
…
There were two packets from Ohio State University awaiting Rachel when she arrived home one April afternoon. She placed Caleb’s carrier on the coffee table as she studied the two packets. They were the same size, which caused her heart to jump. She was sure they both got in.
They had decided together that it was smarter to go to OSU Lima for two years and then move on to the Columbus campus that way they could stay at home and save their money and Nana Connie could still watch Caleb. She didn’t think she’d be ready for him to go to a daycare center in two years but it was really the only option she had.
When Puck got home from work, they confirmed her suspicions and celebrated. That night, when they were cuddling after an intense make out session (the doctor still hadn’t given Rachel the green light for sex), a thought occurred to Puck.
“Rach, are you sure you don’t mind delaying your dreams? ‘Cause I’m sure we could find a way to make it work in the city,” he said kissing along her bare shoulder.
“Don’t be silly, Noah, I am living my dream. I have a wonderful husband and a beautiful son,” she turned to face him, “Broadway will always be there but my family is here now and there’s no other place I want to be.” He grinned down at her before capturing her lips.
…
She eventually made it to Broadway by the time she was thirty after their second son Ezra surprised them shortly after college graduation (everyone joked that for someone so smart, Rachel seemed to have trouble with birth control). Puck got a job on Wall Street, which helped them live relatively comfortable by New York standards until she landed the role of Elphaba in Wicked.
Puck took their boys to the opening night performance and they clapped the loudest out of anyone in the audience. After they put Caleb and Ezra to bed, Puck and Rachel sat in their spacious living room with a glass of wine each. He gripped her tightly to him.
“Baby, we fucking did it,” he said, “we’re living the dream.” She grinned up at him and pressed her lips to his.
“Yes, Noah, we fucking did it,” she laughed. He gazed at her adoringly. He fell in love with her a little more every day.