![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sapphireejAuthor: Sapphire (
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
sapphiresfic)Fandom: Glee
Pairing/Characters: Puck, Rachel, Puck/Rachel, Puckleberry
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 7,727
Spoilers: Up to 1x22 ~ Journey; just to be safe
Series: 'Broken Road' (List of all the parts on my LJ)
Fic Table prompt: #47 - Protection (table at my journal here).
Summary1: Rachel visits her dads in Lima for the holidays, gets pulled over, her ex from NYC stalks her, threatening her life and the cop who pulled her over helps protect her... For fic table prompt #47 - Protection.
Summary2: Noah and Rachel's friends find out the good news and the planning begins.
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, so all mistakes are mine.
A/N2: Feedback keeps me writing, so please comment or review. :D
A/N3: Title comes from 'Blessed The Broken Road' a song by Rascal Flatts. I do not own it, just borrowing for the fic.
~*~
A/N4: A super-belated, but much anticipated, birthday fic for a good friend of mine, PKteach. I wanted to write her a birthday fic, and this is from an idea she gave me.
A/N5: The Gleeks were Juniors in high school when Quinn was pregnant.
A/N6: AU after 1x22 ~ Journey, but contains a relationship that began in 2x01 ~ Auditions.
~*~
After Noah proposed to Rachel and the couple got to spend some time together at the park, they returned to her dads' house and showed off the engagement ring and wedding bands they had purchased.
David and Alan offered to go out and pick up some chips and drinks, since they didn't have much for a party and once they were gone, Rachel and Noah gathered up some extra chairs and rearranged the furniture in the living room a little so there was plenty of room, and relaxed for a while before their friends arrived.
"You may want to get a notebook or something so we can start writing down ideas and what we need to do," Noah suggested.
"That's a great idea!" Rachel jumped up from the couch and headed for her dads' den, collecting a blank tablet of paper and returned, "we're going to need as much help as we can get," she smirked, sliding into his lap and kissing him.
"We'll get it," he assured her. "Have you thought about how Jewish you want it to be?"
She was quiet for a moment, contemplating his question, "I want it simple, yet still has some of the Jewish traditions in place, like the marriage contract and the wedding canopy. Under the canopy, we'll circle each other, say our vows, exchange rings, kiss, break the glass and then we'll move onto a simple reception. I'm sure Rabbi Goodman will understand that we don't have a ton of time to plan this and he'll still officiate over the wedding, even if we don't follow the Jewish traditions exactly," she said, writing down notes on the paper.
"He will," Noah told her, "he's cool. I don't go to Temple a lot, but mom goes all the time and I've been to a few weddings and they're about the same as what you described. He doesn't make the bride and groom be apart for the week prior, like a real traditional one requires," Noah explained.
"Oh thank goodness! I wouldn't be able to go a week without seeing you," she replied, relaxing.
He kissed her, "same here," he agreed.
~*~
David and Alan got back with some snacks and drinks and just before three-thirty, Arin and Deborah showed up and Rachel showed off her engagement ring and the wedding rings they'd purchased. Arin was extremely excited to see them and Deborah, feeling the same as Arin, also admitted that seeing the rings made everything seem even more real than they already were.
"I'm going to take my ring off now," Rachel said, once Deborah and Arin had seen the rings. "It will be completely obvious why we asked everyone to come over if I'm wearing it," she explained, "so I'll put it on once we tell them," she added, looking at Noah, "is that alright?"
"Yeah, just don't keep it off for too long," he winked at her.
"I won't," she promised, sliding the ring off and slipping it into her pocket.
Those in the house moved into the living room, just as the doorbell rang, so Rachel moved to get it, finding Tina and Mike on the other side. "Hey!" Rachel smiled. "Thanks for coming!"
"We wouldn't miss this for the world!" Tina exclaimed, walking in and hugging her, "congratulations!"
"Thank you," she replied, returning Tina's hug.
"Have you gotten rings yet?" She asked.
"Yeah, that's what we did this morning," Rachel pulled the ring from her pocket and show her, "I'll put it on after we tell everyone. You two are the only ones aside from our parents and sister who know," she explained.
"That's so pretty!" Tina smiled, looking at it, "you better put it away," she added, as Finn and Quinn's car pulled up.
Rachel quickly put the ring back in her pocket and let Tina and Mike move further into the house so she could greet Quinn and Finn as they walked up.
~*~
It didn't take long for the rest of their guests to arrive and once all of them were seated in the living room, Rachel called Kurt and explained she and Noah had an announcement and wanted him to hear it, too, so she put him on speakerphone and while she had done that, Noah had called Artie, telling him the same thing, which took a little more explaining, since Artie didn't even know that Rachel was back in Lima, let alone that she and Noah were dating, but once his confusion was cleared, Noah put him on speakerphone and set it on the coffee table near Rachel's phone with Kurt on it and once the two guys confirmed they could hear okay, Rachel wanted to get onto the news, because she couldn't wait to get her engagement ring back on.
"Okay, so yesterday, Noah and I spent the day together and when we were going to dinner, we bumped into Tina and Mike and ate with them. Towards the end of our meal, I kind of spaced out and some things hit me and though, at the time I played it off like I was just tired, my head was racing with a lot of feelings and emotions. Noah and I left and went to sit in his car and I told him that I realized that my ex had been controlling my life and aside from a few true friends I know I have in New York, you all are my real friends. I know not everyone knows the details, but for about eight months, I was in a relationship with someone who slowly was trying to control my life with who I spent time with and what I did. I caught him cheating on me about a week before I came home to Lima and obviously I broke up with him. Since the day I've been back here, he's been stalking me, showing up at the house, sending me flowers, sending me blocked text messages with pictures of me out with people. Thankfully the last few days, I haven't had an issue with him, but when I told Noah about what I realized, he told me that I need to do what I want to do in my life and," she paused, glancing at him, "I told him what I really wanted was to marry him."
"So after the shock wore off and I figured out she was serious, I said 'yes'," Noah finished with a smile as Rachel pulled the ring from her pocket and slid it into her hand, holding it up for all of them to see.
"We told Arin, Deborah and my dads last night and we wanted you guys to hear it from us, today. That's why we invited you all over so quickly," Rachel added.
"Oh, my God!" "Congratulations!" "You're getting married!" "This is awesome!" "I had a feeling you two were up to something!" Were a few of the shocked expressions said as their guests began to get up and move to the newly engaged couple to see the ring and hug them or shake their hands, and Artie and Kurt, both still on speakerphone, passed on their congratulations as well.
It took some some time, but everyone retook their seats, a shocked happiness filling the room as everyone began asking questions about their plans, but the one that stood out was Matt's comment, "the high school badass' girlfriend proposed to him! This is classic! I can't wait to hear what the guys have to say about this."
Noah expected the comment and shrugged, "and I don't care what they say. I'm not going to hide how it happened and if anyone wants to give me shit about it, I'm man enough to take it. I think it takes a bigger man to admit that his girlfriend proposed to him and I returned the favor earlier this afternoon when we got the rings," he added, "but only because I felt that Rachel deserved to be proposed to," he smiled, "I don't care about the exact details of how the proposal happened, but we are engaged and we love each other. That's the most important part."
"Oh, come on, dude. I'm not going to say anything. There are things should just be kept between friends and this," Matt looked around, "I think is one of them."
Though Noah was adamant that he didn't mind anyone knowing, everyone agreed that the details of the proposal were not their story to tell and if Noah or Rachel wanted anyone to know, they'd be the one to tell them. Once that discussion was settled, Kurt chimed in and asked, "so what are the details? Do you guys know where you're getting married? When are you having it? Who's designing your dress?"
"Five weeks from today," Rachel said, "on January first."
"What?" "Are you crazy?" "Five weeks?" "Are you pregnant?"
Everyone as now sitting down and with the questions and comments their friends were bringing up, Rachel expected most of them, but when someone asked if she was pregnant, she squashed that question, "no, I am not pregnant! I am a virgin and plan to remain one until my wedding night," she said firmly, but then calmed down, "sorry, but I just wanted to be clear. I'm saving that for Noah, when he becomes my husband," she added, looking at him next to her.
Noah smiled and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her lovingly, "it's a very honorable thing to do, baby, and I'm totally willing to go at your pace," he promised.
"Okay, enough sex talk, please," David begged, sitting in the back of the room with Alan and Deborah.
The entire room erupted in laughter, but calmed down and moved onto a more important subject, "so, what kind of help do you guys need for this to happen in five weeks?" Quinn asked from a few spots away.
"As much as we can get, actually. I've never planned a wedding before, and we're going to have a very simple ceremony, touching on a few of the common Jewish traditions, but not make it a complete Jewish ceremony. How much, is going to depend on who we can get to officiate," Rachel explained.
"Rabbi Goodman is expecting your call, because he's available that day," Deborah chimed in from behind them.
Noah turned around, "you already called him?"
"Yes," she smiled, "as soon as you two told us you had set a date, I called him, told him what was going on, penciled you guys in for January first and is waiting on one of you to call and set up a time to come talk to him."
"Thank you," Rachel smiled, "I'll call him tomorrow."
"You're welcome. Remind me to give you his information before we leave," Deborah replied.
"I will," Rachel tugged her note pad out and wrote a note for that, "and Noah and I have an idea for a location," she glanced at him, "do you want to tell them or wait?"
He shrugged, "we can tell them now," he looked at their friends, "we're thinking about having it at McKinley. It's got all the amenities that we'd need for the ceremony and the reception, we wouldn't have to worry about renting furniture and they have dances there all the time, so it can be decorated for the wedding. It's really meaningful for us."
Rachel nodded, "we're going to go talk to Principal Figgins tomorrow to see if we'll be able to and hopefully by tomorrow afternoon we'll have our location," she said.
"I don't see why he wouldn't be okay with it," Will commented. "I mean, school is out at that time, so it's not like you'd have to work around classes or anything."
"That's what we're hoping," Noah replied.
"Hey, Kurt, you still there?" Rachel asked.
"Yes, I am," Kurt said through the phone.
"I was wondering if you'd be able to do my dress," she asked, "I know it's short notice."
"Of course I will!" He exclaimed, "and we need to talk about how I'm going to get your measurements and discuss ideas and I know you don't want anyone to hear the details, so I'm going to go and start working on a few sketches, then I'll text you my e-mail address and we can email, okay?"
"That sounds great, Kurt! Thanks so much," Rachel grinned.
"You're welcome! This is going to be fun. Ta-ta everyone!" He called out.
After everyone said 'bye', even though he didn't know who was there, Kurt hung up and Artie did the same thing, unable to stay longer, because his phone was about to die. Taking a moment from wedding planning, they discussed what types of pizza they wanted and Rachel's dads called in the order, letting them get back to planning.
While they waited for the dinner to arrive, everyone started throwing out ideas and suggestions for plans and Mercedes offered to get Rachel some information that she'd used for her wedding. Tina said she'd help them get a wedding announcement into the Allen County Herald, the county newspaper for Lima, which is also where she worked. Finn added in that he knew his mom, a cake decorator in the biggest bakery in Lima, would do their cake, so Rachel made notes of everything and promised once they could think some things out, they'd start contacting everyone for help.
When the pizza got there, planning came to a stop for the night and they all jumped into dinner, chatting and celebrating the new engagement, but as it got later, and since most everyone had to work the next day, slowly their guests began to say 'goodbye' and went home, leaving the Berrys and Puckermans in the house.
Deborah and Arin stayed a little longer to help them clean up the leftover mess from the get-together and just before they left, Deborah gave Rachel the information to the rabbi and Rachel promised to call him soon.
With a final 'goodnight' to everyone, Deborah and Arin went home, leaving just the Berrys and Noah at the house. David and Alan both had to return to work the next day after a week off for the holiday, so they headed up to bed, giving Rachel and Noah some alone time so they could talk about some of their plans and options.
"I'm so glad that everyone was happy with our engagement. I was really worried that someone was thinking we were rushing things," Rachel admitted.
Noah smirked, "well, we are kind of rushing things, but I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, so why wait?" He asked honestly.
Rachel grinned, "I see your point and totally agree," she told him, crawling into his lap to kiss him, "I wanna be with you forever."
"You've got me," he promised, wrapping his arms around her.
She relaxed against him and the two remained together on the couch for a short time, but reluctantly got up and headed to her room, knowing he had to work early the next day.
Once they settled into bed, though her mind was racing with all sorts of plans for their wedding, she fell asleep completely content with how things had turned out. She knew that returning to Lima would be a great thing, but it wasn't until he told her he'd marry her that she realized just how wonderful it was to be home.
~*~
Waking up, Monday morning, all four people in the Berry's house were awake early. Noah left first, promising that he would make sure he asked to get off early, so he could meet Rachel at McKinley to talk to Figgins about using the school as their venue. Rachel's dads made her promise she would not stress out on wedding plans, and once they were sure she wasn't going to go overload on arrangements, the two left, giving Rachel the house to herself.
Staying up, Rachel showered and then collected her notes from the night before and began to rewrite and organize them, so she had a good idea of what they needed and realized that if they kept everything simple, they'd have plenty of time to get things taken care of.
While she was going through numerous thoughts, she realized she needed to call her four best friends in New York. She hadn't talked to them since the day she returned to Lima and though they knew that she'd found Daniel cheating and had broken up with him, they didn't know anything about what he was doing nor did they know anything about her relationship with Noah, so she'd have a lot of explaining to do, which she needed to do soon, because one of them was a photographer, who had done all of her headshots and he was the only one she trusted to do their wedding photos.
Picking up her phone, she dialed his number and waited for him to answer, "hey Ian!" Rachel exclaimed.
"Oh my God! Rachel, how are you doing? Why haven't you called me?" Ian replied, "I haven't talked to you since you went home!"
Rachel blushed, "well, I have my reasons. Actually that's why I'm calling now," she admitted, "are you sitting down?"
"I can be," Ian sat down on his couch, "what's going on?" At his question, Rachel began to tell him what Daniel had been doing, but he had a feeling she was leaving something out, "okay, so you're avoiding something. What are you not saying?"
"Well, you see. I'm... Do you ever remember me talking about a friend from high school named Noah?" She asked.
"Him? Oh tons of times! Why? Did you hook up with him? What's going on? Give me details!" He grinned.
She giggled at his questions, "well, we're actually getting married on the first of January."
"What?" He exclaimed, "explain!"
Rachel went on to explain just what brought them up to the proposal Saturday night and the announcement to their friends the day before, "and you're the first of my friends in New York I've told, because I was hoping you'd be willing to be our wedding photographer."
"Of course I'll do it, sweetheart! This is amazing! Congratulations. Now, if only I could find a guy like that," he sighed, "but this isn't about me. I'm just so shocked!"
"I think that's the general consensus," Rachel admitted, "but we love each other and it's what we want to do, so everyone is being supportive. Our friends here are helping out and we're going today to figure out a venue. I need to call the girls, so I should probably let you go, but I'll email you more details soon. You may want to wait to make flight arrangements until I tell the girls, so maybe the four of you can come out at the same time."
"That's a good idea. Let me know when you tell them," he told her.
"I will. Talk soon!" She said with a smile, before hanging up.
Ian Chandler was Rachel's age and they had met their Freshman year at NYU when they both took an introductory class on photography. That was his path, and she was only taking it as an elective, but they met and worked on a project together and became best friends, since she was comfortable with him being gay. They've been very close since and now he has a small photography study, where he was starting to do a lot of fashion events, shows and working with models, so he was slowly making a name for himself in town.
Smiling at the memories, she scrolled through her list and found the name to her first New York friend, Tammy King, who was also her first roommate at NYU when they were both Freshmen. Even though they weren't taking the same direction in school, they shared similar interests in music and entertainment, so they became fast friends and they also shared an on-campus apartment their Sophomore and Junior year with two other girls they'd met their Freshman year, identical twins Courtney and Brooke Madison. They were a year older and a year ahead of Rachel and Tammy, but Brooke had taken Rachel and Tammy's English class and when Brooke and her twin sister were looking for roommates for the other two bedrooms in an on-campus apartment they were getting the following year, they invited Rachel and Tammy to join them and their, along with Ian's friendship, grew from there.
Pulling herself back to what she had been doing, she called Tammy, who just happened to be meeting the twins at the usual coffee shop they went to, so she was able to make the announcement to all three of them at the same time. Just like with Ian and everyone else, once the initial shock wore off, they were easily accepting and excited, promising they'd all be there and would contact Ian to start making arrangements to fly to Ohio together.
Rachel told them she felt bad that in the time she'd been home, she'd not talked to any of them, but they all understood, now that they were finding out there was another guy in her life, one they were familiar with, because Noah Puckerman came up in conversations a lot; they knew she always had a thing for him, so the marriage to him was not the shock, it was the timeline.
As she ended the call with her friends, happy that they were just as excited for her wedding as she was, she saw it was noon and still had some time before meeting Noah, but then realized she didn't know if he'd gotten the time off. As she thought that, she remembered she'd gotten a few text messages while she was on the phone, so she looked through them and found they were all from her boyfriend, telling her he could get the time off and would meet her at McKinley at two. Relaxing, she sent a message back to him. "That's great! See you there! Would have responded sooner, but was on the phone with friends from NYC. Talk soon! Love you!"
"I thought you might be. Love you, too. See you at 2," he replied a few moments later and Rachel smiled, setting her phone aside to get back to what she had been doing.
With all the notes rewritten and organized, she sat back and began writing down a guest list and smiled. They were going for simple and her list was short. She wrote down all of her family on both Alan and David's side, her four friends from New York, not counting Kurt, and then wrote a list of former McKinley friends or Glee Club members that she knew she wanted there and with that done, all she had to do was get Noah's list and they'd be another step closer to their wedding.
Seeing what time it was getting to be, she touched up her make-up and after leaving a note to let her dads know when she and Noah would be back, she headed to McKinley to meet him.
When she pulled into the parking lot, the feeling changed from 'going back to high school' to 'in just a few weeks I could be getting married here' and the butterflies returned, but as she came to park next to Noah's SUV, she grinned and jumped out of the car, greeting him with a kiss, "hi!" She exclaimed, hugging him.
"Hey baby! You're in a great mood. Have you had sugar today?" He smirked.
She laughed, "nothing other than the little in my coffee this morning, but coming here feels different now," she admitted, "I mean, do you realize that less than five weeks from now, we could be getting married here?"
He smiled and kissed her, "yeah, the thought crossed my mind," he admitted, "it's pretty awesome, isn't it?"
"It is," she nodded, "we should probably go make sure Figgins is here," she added.
"He is. He's waiting on us. I had a few minutes when I got here, so I went in to tell him we wanted to talk to him," he explained.
"Oh, okay, great!" She smiled, "ready?"
"Yeah," he nodded and took her hand as they walked towards the school.
"Where's your belt with your gun on it?" Rachel asked, surprised that he didn't have it on.
"It's safe," he replied, "I'm off duty and I'd rather not wonder around a school with it."
"Oh, right. That makes sense," she agreed, heading into the office. They waved at Figgins and he was just finishing up on the phone and once he was done, the two stepped into his office they both had been in a few times in that past and smiled, "Principal Figgins, it's so nice to see you again," Rachel smiled, shaking his hand.
"You as well, Miss Berry. William told me you're living in New York and then Noah just told me you're visiting for the holidays," he told her.
"Yes, I am. I came back before I start working on another musical production," she explained.
"I see. Welcome home," he smiled, "please, have a seat, both of you," he added, motioning to the seats after shook Noah's hand, "after Noah stopped in a bit ago, I have to admit I'm a bit confused about why you're both asking to see me, so what can I do for you?"
Rachel raised her left hand and smiled, "Noah and I are getting married."
"Congratulations to the two of you," he said with a grin.
"Thank you," Noah replied, taking Rachel's hands, "it's a bit short notice for most weddings, but we plan to get married on New Year's Day, which is five weeks away and we were wondering if we could get married here," Noah explained looking at him.
"At McKinley? Really?" The principal asked in shock.
"Yes," Rachel nodded, "our feelings began here, so the school is special to us."
Figgins smiled, "well, I admit this isn't something that I ever expected, but I don't see why not. School starts back up later in the week and you'd have time before to set up," he explained, "so let's do it. I've never heard of a school being used as a wedding venue, but there's a first time for everything," he said with a smile.
"Really? Just like that?" Noah asked, this time it was their turn to be shocked.
Rachel eyed him, "you don't have to talk to the school board or the superintendent?"
"No. It's my school. I do only have one issue," he said, sitting back in his chair.
"What is that?"
"I would prefer not to have alcohol on school grounds. I assume you want to have both the wedding and the reception here, correct?"
"We would and I'm fine with not having alcohol. I don't drink that often and I'd like to actually remember my wedding," she admitted with a grin.
Noah nodded, "we'll respect that. I'm not much of a drinker any more and if our guests don't like it, they can leave," he added.
"Great! It looks like McKinley is going to have their first wedding," Figgins smiled, "we will have to talk details and location and everything, but for now we'll stick with that," he said handing over a piece of paper with his personal contact information, "I think I can trust this with you guys."
"You can," Rachel nodded, taking and folding it up to put in her bag, "I do have one more question, though."
"What is it?"
"How much? I mean, we're renting the space, so we should be paying you for the time," she admitted.
"It's on me," he smiled, "don't worry about paying. Weddings are expensive, so where you can save, go for it."
Rachel smiled, "thank you so much. This means a lot to us and once we get more plans set and have an idea how many we'll have coming, we'll be able to tell you more. We wanted to make this plan first before anything else, really."
"I understand," Figgins nodded and the three stood up and shook hands.
"Thank you so much, Figgins. We'll be in touch," Noah promised.
The principal nodded and congratulated them again and the couple moved out of the office and headed back to their cars, since school wasn't over yet, "we're getting married, Noah!" Rachel exclaimed, jumping into his arms.
Noah was surprised at her motion, but caught her, hugging her tightly, "we are, baby. Soon you'll be Mrs. Puckerman," he murmured against her lips.
Rachel grinned brightly, "I can't wait!"
"Same here, love," he hugged her, "come on, let's wait for school to get out inside the car, with the heat on," he motioned to his SUV and then guided her to the passenger door and opened it for her.
With a smile she slid in and watched him move around the car and get in himself, then started the engine and turned on the heat, letting the warm air hit them, "I figured we could stay warm while we wait for school to get out and to go into Glee. I also didn't think we should be standing outside. The last thing the bride and groom need is to be sick on their wedding day," he winked at her.
Rachel leaned forward and kissed him, "good point," she agreed, taking his hands in hers, "so I called my friends in New York, at least the four I know are my friends," she told him.
"Really? How did that go," he asked, turning a little to look at her.
"Their reaction was pretty much the same as what everyone here had. Shocked, but acceptance. They," she blushed, "apparently I talked about you a lot, so they knew I had feelings for you," she admitted.
"Oh really?" He grinned, "even after we lost touch?"
"Yeah, even after we did," she replied. "Ian is going to do our wedding photos," she added.
"Who's Ian?" Noah asked, trying not to sound jealous, but he knew that was a guy's name.
"I guess you could call him my college version of Kurt," she grinned, feeling his hands tense up at the mention of the name.
"So he's gay?" He relaxed, trying not to sound too relieved.
"Yes he is. I met him my Freshman year in a photography class and he's a photographer now. Doing very well and he's the only one I'd trust to do our photos. He's done all my headshots," she explained, "so you don't have to be jealous," she added.
Though he wanted to deny that he was jealous, he nodded, "alright," he murmured, "so, he's a good photographer?"
Rachel nodded, "he is. I'll show you my headshots and some of his work when we get back to my dads' place. I have them on my laptop," she told him, "and I'll show you pictures of my friends. Did you tell the guys at work we're getting married?" She asked.
He laughed lightly, "well, Matt did. We were all in the briefing room and after we were told what our assignments were, Matt said he had an announcement and everyone thought he was going to say Mercedes was pregnant, but he says 'Puck's getting' married!' and that kind of started a whole riot, wanting to know about you and everything. I gave them the basic details and that we were getting married on January first, but other than that, we didn't know anything else," he explained, "and my boss pointed something out, and I never really paid too much attention to my teammates hands, but of the ones who are married, none of them wear their wedding rings while on duty."
"What?" Rachel gasped, "but why not? They're married; they should be!"
"Just calm down," Noah smirked, expecting her response, "they wear them on a chain under their shirt," he said, tugging out a chain that had a small Star of David pendant hanging from it, "so it's with them, just not on them. The biggest reason is because we do a lot of raids and we do have gloves on, most of the time, but if we had to grab or reach for something and our ring got caught, it could be dangerous or cause more problems. So my boss pointed that out to them with their rings, and now they all wear them on a chain around their neck and told me the same thing today. He told me it was my choice, but he didn't recommend wearing it, knowing the type of work we do," he explained.
Rachel nodded, thinking about what he said, "so, you're going to wear yours on your chain, right?"
"I was going to talk to you about it, but that's what I'm thinking I'll do. I want to wear it, but he's right. I don't want to lose my finger because my ring got stuck in something," he told her truthfully, "but as soon as I'm off duty, I'll wear it, baby, the only time I'll take it off is when I'm on duty," he promised her.
"I'll be okay with you wearing it around your neck," she said, reaching up to toy with the charm hanging on the chain, "I've never seen this on you before."
"That's because I only wear it when I'm in uniform," he told her, "it's usually in my pocket otherwise. Are you sure you're okay with that plan?" He asked softly.
She nodded, "yes, I am, Noah. I want you to be safe and I understand what you're saying and it's a good idea to wear it under your shirt. It's closer to your heart that way and I know my husband will come home with all ten fingers," she replied, leaning up to kiss him, "so I'm okay with it," she added.
He smiled and kissed her back, "good. Thank you," he murmured, brushing his hand along her cheek.
~*~
Rachel and Noah stayed in his car for a little longer, waiting for school to get out and they also sent a message to Arin to let her know they were outside in his SUV. When the parking lot began to empty, Arin made her way out to meet them, knocking on the passenger window, so Rachel rolled it down, "hey Arin, how was school?" She asked.
"The usual," Arin shrugged, "so, what did Figgins say?"
"It looks like we're getting married here," Rachel replied with a grin.
"That's awesome! Come on into the school. It's warm in there," she said with a laugh.
The two agreed, so Noah shut his car off and both got out, locking the doors and following Arin into school, "couldn't you have changed before you left work?" Arin asked her brother.
"What? Are you embarrassed?" Noah grinned, draping his arm around her shoulders.
"No, but you stand out like a sore thumb," she commented. "I'm proud that you're a cop, Noah. You know that."
Noah smiled, "I know you are and I did know that, but I know that when I was your age, if I had an older brother who was a cop and he showed up in his police uniform I'd run the other way and would not want to be seen with him," he told her honestly.
Arin laughed, "well, you were a jerk until you met Rachel and joined Glee," she turned to Rachel, "so thank you for snapping my brother out of his teenage rebellion and for getting rid of the mohawk," she added.
Rachel smirked, "you're welcome. I'm glad he got rid of that thing. It was hideous! Now I have more hair to run my hands through, too."
"Hey now," Noah stopped and crossed his arms over his chest, "I'm right here, you know? Don't insult the 'hawk. It was a good part of my life. If I hadn't been a jerk or had it, I may have never joined Glee," he commented honestly.
"He has a point," Rachel admitted, moving in front of him, standing on her tip toes and kissing him, as she wrapped her arms around his neck, "I'm so glad you joined Glee."
Slipping his arms around her body, he pressed his lips to hers and held her close, "me, too, baby, me too."
Arin laughed lightly, "do you two think you can keep your hands off each other long enough, so we can get through Glee with out getting grossed out?"
Rachel blushed and after another kiss, got back on her own feet again and nodded, "yes, we can behave," she promised, adjusting her jacket, taking Noah's hand and guiding them the rest of the way towards the choir room.
~*~
Walking into the familiar room together, Rachel and Noah went to greet Will, while Arin moved to take her usual seat with some friends. The students recognized Rachel, but other than Arin's few close friends, no one knew who Noah was, but it didn't take long before they figured it out, since the siblings looked as alike as they could for being the opposite gender. They both had same brown hair, the same color eyes and facial features and many of their expressions matched, so no one denied their relationship. Noah's uniform also had 'Puckerman' stitched on one of his shirt's patches, so if the looks didn't clue them in, the name would.
"Rachel, Noah, how are you guys doing?" Will asked when he saw them come into the room.
"We're doing great!" Rachel grinned.
"I take it you talked to Figgins," Will commented, seeing how excited she was.
"We did," Noah agreed, shaking his hand and then slid onto the piano bench.
"He's letting us use the school!" Rachel exclaimed bubbly, clapping her hands.
Will smiled, "that's awesome, guys. Congrats!"
"Thanks," Rachel replied, "now we have a place and a photographer, so it's a start. I just hope we can get everything ready."
"We've got plenty of time," Noah promised her.
She smiled, taking a deep breath and nodded, "yeah, you're right."
~*~
When Will started the club, he introduced Noah as Arin's brother and a former member of the Glee Club, with Rachel, and the two were now engaged. The teens congratulated them on their engagement and asked a few questions to both of them about their time in Glee and after they answered them, they moved onto practicing for Sectionals.
Noah was proud to see his sister singing lead and clapped for them when they finished their songs. Going through each number a few times, Will was really happy with their vocals and called and end to the club for the day, telling them starting at the next practice they'd be meeting in the auditorium, so they could work on their dances more than they were and after a few kids hung out to ask Rachel and Noah more questions, everyone was on their way out to their cars. Noah and Rachel walked Arin to her car and then went back to their cars in the visitor's parking lot and Noah followed Rachel back to the Berry's house.
Shortly after they got there Arin and Deborah came over and the six of them had dinner together and talked about the guest list for the wedding. After dinner, Rachel showed her dads the list she'd come up with and also showed Noah the list of the Glee members or former friends from school that she thought of to invite and Noah agreed with them, adding a few and then he and his mom and sister came up with a list of their family members to invite and his coworkers and once it was done, they relaxed in the living room for a bit before Arin and Deborah went home for the night and Rachel's dads, Noah and Rachel headed for bed.
"So, I was thinking that we should do red and white for our colors," Rachel told Noah as they crawled into bed.
"Really?" Noah asked surprised, "why? I thought you liked purple and pink."
"I do," she smiled, happy to find out that he knew her favorite colors, "but since we're getting married at McKinley, because it has special meaning to us, I think we should use at least a few of the school colors. Black doesn't really make sense, because it's a wedding, but you get what I mean," she explained.
"Yeah, I do," he nodded, "that's a cool idea. I'm in," he replied, kissing her as they relaxed in bed.
"Great!" Rachel sat up and dashed over to her desk, writing the color plans down in her notes and then joined him back in bed.
"You could have waited until morning," he laughed lightly.
She shrugged and kissed him, "I know, but I just want to make sure that I remember everything. This is important to me."
"It's important to me, too, babe. We won't forget anything and if we do, then it's okay. We'll deal with it," he kissed her and hugged her close, "we're in this together," he promised.
~*~
Getting her dads and fiancé off to work the next morning, Rachel went back to bed for a few hours and when she got up around ten, she took a shower to wash away the laziness and then sat down at her desk and began going over her notes for the wedding. While she was writing something down, she realized Kurt never sent her his email address, so she called him and he apologized, giving it to her over the phone, "so sorry about that. I got so caught up in the sketches that I fell asleep at my drawing table," Kurt admitted.
Rachel laughed lightly, "it's alright. Are you busy right now?"
"No, but I have a lunch meeting in about an hour," he replied, "who would have thought running your own business was so much work. Now I know why my dad was always at the shop."
"It is tough," Rachel agreed, "but you'll work things out, Kurt. I know you will."
Kurt sighed, "thanks Rachel, but I just don't feel it. It's so expensive for everything here."
Rachel thought for a moment. Kurt had graduated the same time she had, about a year and a half prior, from a fashion college in New York. Since then, he's been struggling to get his designs to the public and maintain customers in his online shop. "Come home then," she suggested, "and I mean come home and start out here. Rent a shop for a quarter of the price and with your friends around helping out, you could have a booming business and still sell things online. Sure New York is where the life is, but it also has a huge price tag and if you're not the best of the best, it's tough to make it. Trust me, I know I'm a great singer and a performer, but there are others just as good as me, so I got my eyes opened a lot once I got to New York. You could come home and save money and probably do better because you have the brain power to do it," she told him honestly.
Listening to what Rachel said, Kurt thought about what she was proposing and though the idea of coming home to Lima wasn't on the top of his list of things to do, it was there, "you know, I thought of that once. Do you really think I could make it?"
"Yes, I do," Rachel nodded.
"Maybe I will come home then. I mean, well, permanently, but I can deal with that later. We have a wedding dress to make," he commented with a grin.
"Let me get into my email and I'll send you my address and you can show me your ideas," she told him, getting her laptop turned on and after a few moments she sent him an email.
Once Kurt got her message, he sent her back the sketches he'd started on her dress and they began talking about styles and she gave him a few measurements that she knew and promised to get the others to him soon. She told him that Figgins was letting them use the school and they'd decided on McKinley Red and white for their colors, so he added that into his notes and when he realized it was getting late, he had to go, but promised to email her some updated sketches when he finished them.
Getting off the phone with Kurt, Rachel went back to her notes and when she got hungry, she went downstairs to get something for lunch and returned to her room, a thousand things running through her head. "Rachel, Noah is right. We'll get everything taken care of," she told herself, "maybe you should pamper yourself for a few minutes. Put some lotion on and relax."
Reaching for her bottle of orange scented lotion, she slipped off her engagement ring and set it on her nightstand, then squeezed a little bit of the lotion out on her hands started rubbing the lotion into her hands and arms. She loved the smell, and it had a soothing effect on her, so she stretched on on the bed and let her eyes close to relax for a moment, but as she did she heard the doorbell ring. "Who's that?" She wondered, getting up and stretching her arms a little.
Glancing in the mirror to make sure she was presentable, she headed down the stairs, just as whoever it was knocked. "I'm coming," Rachel said opening the door, "hello, can I..." As soon as her eyes landed on the man standing on their porch, she gasped, "you're not supposed to be here," she snapped, stepping back and trying to close the door.
"Is that anyway to treat your boyfriend?" Daniel hissed, stepping forward and slipping his foot between the door and the frame, so she couldn't close it.
"You're not my anything! Get out!" She exclaimed, trying to force the door closed, even though she knew his foot was blocking it. Hearing an odd click, she looked up, just as he held a gun up to her, "I think you might want to let me in, Rachel."
~*~
A/N7: Remember: due to the nature of what will be in the next few chapters, the rating for this fic will go up to 'M / R', so make sure you have it on your alerts so you continue to get updates.
A/N8: I hope you enjoyed! I promise I have not abandoned you! It's been a long few months. When I last updated my fics, in late-May to early-June, I was doing okay, but my medical issues flared up and in mid-June other things were added to my plate. Since it's the summer, it's road-trip season for me, so I've been hanging out with my friends and am also trying to get my business up and running to sell my crafts, my mom is out of school and we have a lot of things around the house we're trying to do, going places with her and taking her to Seattle for her cancer check-ups (she's still cancer free! Yay!) so my time online has been limited. All of this has built up, so I usually only have the energy to email and hang out on Tumblr. I just went to the doctor and am working on getting some of these things straightened out, so I'm getting there. Just bare with me, please. I promise I will get to reviews and fics when I can, but it may be a while. I love you all and thank you so much for your support and for reading my fics! Don't forget, aside from my few WIPs, I also have several complete fics that you could read.
A/N9: There is a 'Puckleberry Awards' going on at LiveJournal - here's the link to the nomination post - (http://prfanficawards.livejournal.com/789.html). They have numerous categories and you can vote for up to 3 fics per category. Originally the nominations would only be until July 15th, but they have been extended to July 31st. There are a ton of Puckleberry fics and authors out there and I'm not sure who knows about this (I heard about it on Tumblr) and I'm letting you all know. You have to be a member of LiveJournal to comment and all you guys have to do is copy and paste the nomination 'form' into a comment on that link above and type in the names of the fics and authors information (links to fics of some kind) and submit it. You can also post the form in the 'askbox' on the Tumblr for the awards, but you have to be a member of Tumblr. If you are not a member of either, I think you can email it, but I'm not 100% on that one, but I'm sure you could contact the creator and ask. There is only one 'WIP' category, so 'Out of the Blue', 'Starlight', 'Broken Road' and 'Returning Home' only fit into that category, but remember, I have several complete fics you can nominate (if you'd like): 'Fly Me To The Moon', 'Became The Summer', 'Leave Out All The Rest', 'Paper and 'Gotta Start Somewhere' and I'm SapphireEJ on FF and SapphiresFic on LJ - the more information you give them, the easier it is for the people doing the awards to find the fics. Don't feel obligated to nominate me, but if you'd like to, that'd be awesome.
~*~
