A/N Ok i know this is sort of out of the blue but it was being dragged on for far to long so I have decided to end this here! Thank you so much to everyone who has stuck it out with me with this story, which a very long time ago was started for Gleek4lyf! so she she should be thanked for giving me the idea in the first place. I promise to keep writing Mikel/Cherry stories, especialyl as I was the first one ever! thank you again to everyone from those who reviewed to those who lurked. Thank you!
Disclaimed
Mikel 31
The funeral was as bad as everyone knew it would be, Puck cried at the graveside clinging to his best friend who cried silently as she held him, the only way people knew she was crying was because of the tears running down her face, she held herself stiffly, and not one shudder escaped her stiff shoulders.
Letting the teenagers have the rest of the week off, while Puck and Rachel did a form of Shiva, they all stayed at Rachel's house, Quinn and Puck finally talking about their daughter and coming to the decision to have her adopted, as long as Puck got an open adoption he was happy, he had wanted to keep his daughter but without his mom he wasn't so sure he could handle it.
"Am I being selfish?" Puck asked sitting at the end of Rachel and Mike's bed leaning against one of the posts, Matt against the other.
"No" Matt insisted shaking his head "you are doing the right thing, if you don't think you can deal then you should let someone who can, it doesn't mean you love her any less"
"He's right" Rachel said from next to Mike leaning against her boyfriends chest "you are doing the right thing"
"Yeah now all I have to do is find a place to live"
"Your Gran say anything yet?" Mike asked
"Nope, not a word. Starting to piss me off if I'm honest and Dani"
"Maybe you should talk to her, you are not a child anymore and you have the right to know where you are going to live" Rachel said
"I don't want to hear that she is whisking us off to New York" Puck admitted reluctantly "I hate Lima but I don't want to leave right now, I'm...well I would say I'm in a good place but mom just...look I just..."
"You don't want to leave Rachel, you love her" Mike said bluntly "dude we get it, I get it, you love my girlfriend like a sister I know, and leaving now would fuck you up and put you back on the track of the douche bag who slushied her every week for two years"
"You aint mad?" Puck asked in surprise "Cos I do love her, Rachel...Rach you're my best friend"
"I love you Noah" Rachel said smiling "I was talking to m dad's yesterday and they said that they have offered to take you and Dani in"
"Seriously? Live here with your family and Quinn?"
"Quinn is family too" Rachel said gently "she is just at school at the moment, but yes live here. Maybe you should talk to your grandmother, reassure her that you are ok with living here, it could be as simple as she is feeling guilty that she doesn't know what to do"
"When did you get so smart?"
"Oh please I always was" Rachel said tossing her hair over one shoulder haughtily trying to hide her smile as everyone laughed for what felt like the first time in months.
"How's Dani?" Matt asked Puck, the little girl had been released from hospital today, her lungs finally strong enough to allow her to come home and rest, her broken leg and ribs confining her to her bed.
"She's asleep at the moment, she's miserable but alive, and right now that is all that matters"
"We'll look after her" Matt promised "make her happy again"
"We love her" Mike said with a smile "we want her to be happy again"
"Thanks guys" Puck said with a tight smile "I'm going to go and talk to my Bubie" he climbed off the bed and stumbled downstairs to the living room where Eden was watching television "can we talk?" he asked gruffly sitting down next to her.
"Course" Eden said turning the television off and turning to her grandson.
"I don't want to move to New York, you don't want to move here, seems like we are at dead end. But then it doesn't really matter does it? Because you don't want to raise us, just like you didn't want to raise mom, Rachel told me about her dads offer and I want us to take it, Dani can't lose her friends at the same time she lost mom, and I don't want to lose Rachel and want to be around to make sure my daughter goes to the right home"
"You are right" Eden sighed "I do love the two of you I'm just selfish I guess, which is a really ugly emotion considering everything"
"Look it's done it's over, right now I need to spend time rebuilding my family, and making Dani feel secure, no offence Bubie, because I love you, but you being here isn't going to help Dani"
"I know, I'll leave this weekend"
"I am still planning on college on the east coast bubie, I will see you" Puck assured his grandmother "I love you and Dani loves you"
Eden smiled and pulled her grandson into a tight hug "I love you too Noah" she breathed out "and I am so sorry for everything"
"I know" Puck said gently "it's just the way it needs to be"
They told Dani the next day, cheering the little girl up immensely as she had been fearing moving to New York and losing all her friends and the only family she had left in Rachel, Mike and Matt.
"We really don't have to move?" Dani asked cuddling up to her brother as everyone, including Quinn sat around the bed.
"Nope Sweetie this is your home now" Rachel said gently leaning over to kiss the little girls forehead.
"What about all my things? I don't have any clothes or anything"
The teenagers looked at each other awkwardly, they had gone past the former Puckerman house yesterday and it was an empty shell of a building, the fire had completely gutted the building, nothing was left. For Puck who had got the majority of his things out when his mom had thrown him out it wasn't so bad, but Dani had lost everything.
"Um well baby, it was all destroyed in the fire, but we will replace it all" Rachel promised her "we will go to the mall and have a girly day shopping for everything you need. Quinn can help us so you won't be forced into my own form of fashion"
"Of course I would love to help" Quinn smiled
"But Bunny" Dani whimpered before bursting into tears.
"Bunny?" asked Matt gently as Puck held his sister close and let her cry into his shoulder.
"Her teddy bear, she had her for years" Puck whispered
"Oh hunnie" Rachel sympathised, realising how lost she would be without her own teddy bear that she had had since she had been born "just think Bunny is with your mommy, Mike go get the bunny from my room" she instructed quietly moving to sit next to the little girl as Mike bolted to their room and grabbed the bunny from Rachel's vast collection of soft toys. "I know this isn't the really bunny, but he needs a home as well" Rachel said taking the bunny Mike held out to her.
Dani grabbed for the bunny and held it close tightly "ok" she agreed quietly hugging it tightly as everyone sighed in relief that her tears had been halted and they had managed to put a smile on the face of the grieving little girl.
"So this is it now?" asked Puck looking around at everyone "this is our home Dani, and this is our family"
"Even me?" Quinn asked quietly, still feeling like she was on the outside looking in with this group, but anxious to be a part of the Berry family.
"Yeah Q, even you" Puck said a little reluctantly "not in the way you want" he explained warningly "but you are Rachel's sister, and for the next few months the mother of my child but that's it" he said a little harshly.
Blushing a little Quinn nodded and agreed, annoyed at herself for trying to make Puck go out with her minutes after her and Finn had broken up.
"I don't sleep over as much as Mike but I'm still family" Matt grinned as Mike pulled his girlfriend on to his lap with a lecherous grin, everyone except Dani laughing as Rachel blushed and buried her head into his neck.
"So we are going to be ok?" Dani asked gently looking up at her brother.
"Yeah Dan we will be" he promised "it's going to take a while and we are in the middle of a sucky situation but still we will be ok"
"Here with our family"