That Saturday, the Fabangeses (including a returned Claudia and Evanses) met up to take Christmas card photos.
Paul had a ball shooting all the new babies and Mercedes' and Tina's pregnancy shoots.
Ellen was there at Marcy's and Mal's insistence and took plenty of behind the scenes pictures. Plus she loved meeting Paul, who let her fawn over him.
The twins were the only upset party. They were mad Riley was getting so much attention. They were eleven months old and jealous already.
It was bad enough they were banished to their bedroom now that she'd arrived but everyone smiled at the baby broadly while barely looking at them!
That would not stand so they performed miracles. Mickey pointed at her standing brother and stuttered out "Dada!".
Mal nearly dropped dead. "My baby can talk!"
"Dada!" She bounced a little, on a blanket on the floor.
He swept her up and hugged her. "Hey, everybody! Mickey just said-!"
Marcy screamed, cutting him off.
Everyone turned to look at Mally running to embrace his mother.
Marcy yanked him up and danced with him. "My baby can walk!"
Both parents babbled at their babies, who ate up the attention. Everyone congratulated the pair.
Riley was already an attention hog and couldn't let that fly. She began screaming.
"Girl, hush up!" Marcy glared.
Mal laughed. "Stop being mean to my baby."
"My baby just walked." She nuzzled Mally, who giggled behind his bamboo binky.
Mal rolled his eyes with a smile as he sat down by Riley's car-seat. He rubbed her chubby cheek.
Mickey got mad and swatted at his hand.
"You don't want me touching your baby?" He smirked.
She leaned forward and put her open mouth on his face, drooling a bit.
"Thanks for that."
Marcy danced with a pleased Mally. She dipped him and swung slowly. He allowed it.
Their grandparents thought it was cute.
Quinn frowned. She wanted Fallyn to say something new (only saying four words so far). "Come on, baby. Say Mama."
Fallyn stared at her mommy.
"Please?"
Fallyn's mouth worked but she stayed silent.
Quinn pouted.
"Quinn." Finn played with his son against his will. "She knows how to say Mama."
"I want her to say it now."
"Why?"
She didn't want to admit that she wanted to upstage her little sister and baby brother.
But Finn could hear it in her silence. "Quinn..."
"I want her to say Mama."
Fallyn patted her mother's face soothingly.
Quinn poked her lip out but wasn't morose. Fallyn would do things in her own time. There wasn't a rush.
📄
The shoot went great and the Evanses even got in on a couple.
Everyone went away happy. Especially since they went out to dinner after and Mike got everyone's sound bites for the family newsletter.
📄
On Monday, Mercedes sang Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas (is You) while the whole group decorated a Christmas tree in the choir room. It was great fun as everyone (even Rachel) was in a festive mood.
Mr. Shue got the idea to have Secret Santa again. He wanted it and the Christmas concert to be annual traditions.
Artie was pleased to get Marcy. He wasn't sure what to get her but he knew he wanted it to be fantastic.
Marcy was pleased to get Artie. She knew exactly what she wanted to get him and began sketching up ideas and logistics as soon as she went home.
This was going to be the best Christmas yet.
📄
Mercedes was a little dismayed to get Rachel. She didn't know what to do for the Jewish diva. She could go generic and get her something shiny. But she wasn't sure she wanted to. As mad as she was at the younger Leo, Mercedes was still kind.
Even with those hormones...
Then it hit her. Rachel wanted to belong. Somewhere and to someone. Mercedes knew about Rachel's Shelby issues. She knew how hard it was for the girl to not have a mom for her entire life and then for her to show up for three minutes and leave again.
She couldn't salvage Rachel's relationship with her birth mother but she could play matchmaker for her and have her have her own love connection.
Mercedes knew what Rachel had told Kurt (he'd told her) so she figured getting her a soulmate was step one but getting her friends was the true kicker. Mercedes hated popularity with a passion but knew Rachel craved it.
She couldn't have the rest of the school change their attitudes towards the Broadway wannabe but maybe she could change her friends'?
Mercedes thought up shopping as a tentative excursion for Rachel to connect to the group (of girls). But for that to happen, she needed Rachel's biggest hater (Quinn) and the person who could hurt her the most (Marcy) to go along with it.
Mercedes also knew they'd have to go shopping for things Marcy liked to insure she went but also for things for Quinn to insure she'd keep her poison to a minimum.
Mercedes thought up shopping for books and jewels. She called her sisters when she got home as she was changing out of her uniform.
She called Marcy first (the biggie).
"Hello?" Marcy sounded distracted.
"Hey. It's Mercy. Do you want to go book and jewel shopping with Kurt and the girls?"
Marcy was silent for a moment. "No."
Mercedes' eyes nearly fell out of her head. "You don't want to go book shopping?!"
"I mean I do want to go but I need to go shopping for other stuff more."
Mercedes was intrigued. "What?"
"I need to go to Home Depot, a fabric store, a carpet store, HomeGoods and to Mr. Hummel's body shop."
Mercedes was intrigued by all of that. "Okay. We can do that."
"When we finish, we can go shopping for jewels. No books."
Mercedes was bowled over. Marcy's hormones must still be intact. "We can shop for books. We need to read more anyway."
Marcy giggled. "Okay. Meet you at Home Depot in thirty? Make sure your twin is on time and I'll get after mine."
Mercedes giggled. "Deal. Bye."
"Bye." Marcy hung up.
Mercedes made sure her phone was off and finished changing. She swiped up a new bag (to match; duh) and different boots before blowing out to tell Puck she would be gone for a while and then to collect Clark.
Puck made her a few minutes late...
📄
Kurt and the girls met up at Home Depot in Lima, Rachel's dad dropping her off.
Santana sneered as she saw the younger brunette getting out of the car. "Why's she here?"
"Be nice." Mercedes sang.
Quinn kept her temper but her disgust was on her face.
Marcy was totally apathetic towards Rachel and barely waited for her to make it to the store front. She immediately grabbed a basket and went inside.
"What are we looking for?" Brittany kept up with the short brunette.
Marcy tried to think and talk at the same time. "Tana and Britt, I need spray paint gear. Can you find it and meet us at checkout?"
Brittany nodded, this feeling like an adventure. "Aye, aye, captain!"
Marcy giggled.
Brittany brightened and tugged her girlfriend away.
"Rou and Yuri? I need a mini fridge."
Karou nodded. "What size?"
"Eh. I'll make it fit. Just make sure it's black or red."
"Gotcha." Karou and Yuria walked off.
"Kurt and Quinn? I need nails and screws. All sizes. Go crazy. And brackets and just- go crazy."
Quinn knew what to look for and tugged Kurt off.
"Claud, T and Lauren? I need paint chips and swatches. Every color you can imagine. When you get to checkout, I'll tell you which paint samples to get."
The trio walked off.
"Sugar, find cleaning supplies. Like a mini handheld vacuum and paper towels and Windex and shit."
Sugar raced off.
"Mercy, I need you with me. I need more power tools."
Mercedes nodded. "Okay."
"What about us?" Ellen asked.
"I don't need anything else out of here." Marcy shook her head. "So you'll get to stay with me."
Ellen smiled widely. "Okay."
Mercedes cooed.
Rachel wondered about her. It was like Marcy forgot she was there.
Marcy began going towards where the power tools were and began perusing. "Mercy, I need a table saw."
Mercedes began going over the brands.
Marcy went over power drills.
Ellen was surprised they made informed decisions. She didn't know a table saw from a power drill.
Rachel was gobsmacked herself.
Marcy selected a couple different drills and other machinery while Mercedes picked out a pretty great table saw. "Let's go to checkout."
The girls and Kurt congregated at checkout. Marcy made her selections on the paint samples and Claudia, Tina and Lauren went back to match them.
Luckily there was a long line so the three made it back in time.
After Home Depot was the carpet store. Marcy wanted them all to find one carpet they truly liked and she'd pick the best of them.
Santana had the best one and it was a red short fibered carpet.
Marcy bought about five yards of it.
They went to the fabric store next.
Kurt and the girls had fun acting silly in there but the same rules applied. Brittany had the best fabric, a dark blue and black with touches of yellow and red with stars galaxy fabric.
Then they went to HomeGoods. They had the most fun there.
Marcy had them get salt and pepper shakers that were cute but functional. She had them get pillows. She had them get containers and jars.
It was an adventure trying to find things that'd please Marcy and Kurt and the girls made a game out of it. Whomever got a smile out of Marcy won the round.
When they finished in there, they went to Burt's (biggest) body shop.
Kurt was excited to see his father while Marcy made quality purchases.
Burt was intrigued himself by her buying car and metal parts. He asked her about her project but she said it was a secret until it was done. That piqued his interest more.
She finished purchasing and they left to go to As the Page Turns; the Fabangeses' favorite bookshop.
Mr. Herbert was there of course and rejoiced in them bringing friends.
Everyone found at least one book.
Kurt found a design book that he had to look over. Tina bought a copy of the same book because it was about a Japanese fashion designer but luckily was in English, too.
Quinn got crime thrillers, Mercedes bought poetry and Marcy just razed the store to the ground.
The girls were seriously impressed by the stack from the trio.
Even Brittany bought four books. They were the classics with one romance thrown in. She wanted to be well read, too.
Santana was proud of her lover and grabbed a history book, usually not liking the subject but two romances to offset it.
Ellen grabbed a few photography books, Lauren got behind the music books and Karou and Paris just went nuts.
Yuria and Claudia grabbed language books. Yuria wanted to pick up Spanish or Japanese so she bought both and dictionaries for both while Claudia just wanted to learn something wild so she picked up a Swahili language book and a dictionary for it.
Sugar didn't really like to read but she loved music and musical theater so she got the same types of biographies as Lauren, including one on Motown (in love with Mercedes and Marcy).
Rachel didn't know what to get. She didn't read much if she didn't have to. She believed in being "well-rounded" so she had read classics and a few self-help books to improve herself but honestly it'd been a chore to get through.
She felt a bit bad as everyone gushed over their finds. Why was she so bad at connecting with anyone?
Mercedes could see her despair from where she was finishing up buying. She went to Rachel. "What's wrong?"
"I can't find a book." Rachel blushed.
"What kind do you want?"
Rachel shrugged miserably.
Mercedes perked up. This was it! She whistled shortly for her sisters' attention. "Rachel needs book recs."
"What's your poison?" Marcy asked.
"Poison?" Rachel squeaked.
"How do you want to feel when you finish reading it?"
Rachel blinked. She didn't know! "Happy?"
"That it?"
Rachel burned. "Satisfied."
Marcy went around picking up books. "If romance is your drink of choice, these will leave you in a puddle of happy."
Rachel blushed darkly. Romance?! She was just seventeen!
Marcy picked out three books she thought Rachel could handle. "If you like mysteries, these will give you the warm and fuzzies."
Rachel took the two tomes.
Marcy grabbed a Spanish language book. "Your Spanish is atrocious. Better yourself."
Santana cackled.
Marcy picked up another book. "You're always hollering about your two dads and you're in the BSU but you don't seem to really understand anything black so here's a book of black poetry from the community."
Rachel's face flamed. She wasn't insensitive! She loved both of her dads.
Santana was howling in the background.
Marcy ignored her. "And here. This is for fun."
Rachel took the book on Judy Garland. Rachel felt better. That was in her wheelhouse.
Mercedes could tell she felt warmer so she ushered Rachel to the counter to purchase.
When they were done, they went to Opal's.
Santana, though rich, had never been. Kurt and the others were far behind.
The Fabangeses showed them the ins and outs of Opal's.
Marcy came up with friendship jewelry. She wanted to buy all of her friends a diamond choker.
Kurt nearly died. Especially when Quinn chipped in for diamond tennis bracelets. Mercedes wouldn't be outdone and wanted diamond earrings for the girls and diamond cuff links for Kurt.
Santana was so glad to be friends with them. Brittany didn't want to be greedy but she very much echoed her girlfriend's sentiments.
Lauren was like them, as was Sugar.
Tina wanted to buy them something so she got them diamond Bobby pins.
Karou wanted to buy Yuria jewelry though.
Marcy was on that same train and bought Ellen a "perfect" diamond necklace. It was set in gold and the redhead wanted to wear it out of the store.
Rachel was downright dumbstruck when Marcy handed her the necklace box. But she nearly fell over when Quinn handed her the bracelet box. Didn't they hate her? Why were they gifting her (real!) diamonds?
Mercedes helped her into her pieces. "Now you shine on the outside, too."
Rachel teared up.
Mercedes hugged her as she went to get a pair of peridots (earrings) for Finn for Christmas.
Rachel felt warm and fuzzy and didn't know how to combat that.
📄
Mercedes put away her purchases, feeling really pleased. Tonight had been a success.