(no subject)
Title: Mr. Jingles
Author: Kimmi
Summary: Rachel and Puck's daughter looses her favourite stuffed toy.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Glee. If I did I would be so rich it’s not even funny. And I’d hire some fanfic writers to write for Glee. Oh well.
Author's Note: For the Puck/Rachel Drabble Meme for This prompt. I feel I lost the prompt a little as the actual lost posters are only mentioned but oh well. Also, I'm not sure I like the ending, it might be too sentimental and hokey.
Rachel let herself into her apartment in New York, her sleeping daughter cradled gently in her arms. They'd just gotten back from being on tour with Rachel's husband. Noah Puckerman, or Puck to his fans, was a huge rockstar and was in the middle of a massive worldwide tour, his first ever tour. Rachel was a star herself, a Broadway star, and had gone along with their daughter Stella on tour with him for a little under half of the tour. She'd had to come home because her new play was about to go into it's first rehearsal and Stella was getting a little antsy moving from town to town anyway.
She locked the front door carefully behind her and then headed into Stella's room to put her into bed. She'd already been in her pyjama's for the flight home so it was just a matter of sliding her into her bed, tucking her in and kissing her goodnight gently before leaving the room to let her sleep. She'd absolutely loved being on tour with her Daddy and Rachel knew that seeing so much of the country at the young age of four was definitely a good thing for her. But now all she wanted to do was collapse into her own bed and try to get to sleep without the sound of her husband's horrendous snoring in her ear that she'd gotten used to over the years.
Early the next morning Rachel was woken up by a scream. She bolted out of bed in a panic and ran to her daughters room, one of her husbands heavy shoes in her hand to use as a really bad weapon, and breathed out a sigh of relief when she saw that Stella was perfectly fine, no one was in the house (they'd had a couple of scary moments with stalkers for both herself and Noah) but that Stella looked absolutely distraught.
"What's wrong, Baby?" She asked, still trying to calm her frantically beating heart. Stella's little lip quivered and she looked about a second away from a full blown meltdown.
"I can't find Mr. Jingles anywhere, Mommy." The little girl bemoaned, her large brown eyes already shining with tears. Rachel rose her eyebrows at the statement. Mr. Jingles was Stella's favourite toy, and had been her whole life. It was a stuffed monkey that had been given to her by her Uncle Kurt when she was just a tiny baby. She took it with her everywhere and was often found talking to it when she was left to play on her own for a little while. It was her best friend in the whole world and she loved that ratty old thing above all of her other toys.
(It used to give Rachel a complex. She'd bought her daughter countless stuffed toys over the years but she always threw them over for Kurt's stupid stuffed monkey toy. And don't think he didn't gloat about that!)
"I'm sure he's around here somewhere." She told her, going over to the bed and searching through the mangled blankets for the monkey. Stella was just as bad as her father with her tossing and turning, the blankets and sheets always ended up twisted around the end of the bed so she was sure that Mr. Jingles had to be in there somewhere.
When she couldn't find the monkey in the bed she dropped to her knees and peered under the bed but still no sight of the beloved toy.
"He's lost!" Stella cried out dramatically, flailing her little arms about in heartache. Rachel stifled a grin because her daughter was just so overdramatic it was adorable. (And she always claimed she had no idea where she'd gotten that trait from which always made Noah dissolve into pearls of laughter.)
"He has to be around here somewhere." She assured her, taking her daughter into her arms and hugging her tightly, running her hands up and down her back soothingly as she started to sob. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see her daughter so upset.
It was a little later that Rachel realised that she couldn't remember if Mr. Jingles had been in Stella's arms as she'd put her to bed in the first place. In fact, she couldn't even remember if she'd had him while they'd been in the cab from the airport. She felt absolutely terrible, knowing that there was a good chance that Mr. Jingles wasn't going to just show up somewhere around the apartment. Stella would be absolutely devastated if she couldn't have her beloved monkey with her and Rachel absolutely did not want that to happen.
"Noah, are you sure it's not on the tour bus?" She whispered into the phone one night, peeking out into the living room to check to see if her daughter was still watching the movie she'd put on for her. It was heartbreaking to see her staring at the television in what could only be described as depression. She usually had Mr. Jingles cradled against her chest as she watched TV and often spoke to him about what was going on like she always saw her Mommy do with her Daddy but now she was just watching the TV with a little frown on her face, nothing there for her to talk to.
"I've looked, Babe. Tore the whole bus apart looking for that stupid monkey. It's nowhere." Noah told her with a frustrated sigh. "It's gone." He added and she frowned.
"No, absolutely not. I will find that monkey if it's the last thing I do." She vowed and he snorted.
"How are you going to do that?" He asked and she sighed.
"I don't know. But we have to find him, Noah. She misses him terribly." She told him, peeking at her daughter again.
"She's lost him before and she was alright." He pointed out and she nodded. Yes, she remembered the time Mr. Jingles had disappeared for over a month only to turn up in the recording studio Noah had been working in at the time.
"This time's different. I think it's because you're not around. Having you both gone is hitting her hard." She told him and he frowned.
"I can't cancel the damn tour because my daughter lost her stuffed monkey." He pointed out. "I would but the record company would skin me alive." He added and she couldn't help but smile. He definitely would cancel his shows just to be with his daughter but that would lead to a whole lot of trouble if he did, he had a contract to uphold after all, but it was sweet knowing he would.
"I know, Honey." She assured him. "And that's why we have to find him." She pointed out and he sighed.
"I'll get Artie to call all the hotels we stayed at to see if it got left behind somewhere." He assured her and she grinned and nodded. Artie was their close friend as well as Noah's manager and he absolutely loved Stella to pieces so she knew he'd do whatever it took to get that monkey back for her.
"You're the best." She assured him. "I'm going to get Stella so she can talk to you, okay?" She asked and he hummed happily in agreement. "Stella, Daddy wants to talk to you." She called out and Stella came running on her little legs as fast as possible, taking the phone out of her mother's hands.
"Daddy? Did you hear? Mr. Jingles is missing. He's all alone in the world and he's probably scared." She announced dramatically and Rachel gave her daughter a sad smile.
Another few weeks went by with still no sighting of Mr. Jingles. Artie had heard back from the hotels they'd stayed at, no toy monkey's had been left behind at any of them. Stella was still extremely upset over not having her toy companion and nothing was cheering her up. Not even an unexpected visit from her Grandma Ava, Grandpa Leroy and Poppy Marshall could cheer her up. Or a play date with Kurt and Blaine's son Ryan, her best friend in the whole world (who wasn't a stuffed monkey). Rachel was getting desperate.
"Kurt, where did you get the original Mr. Jingles from? Maybe we can get a new one and she won't know the difference." She suggested as she and Kurt were sitting having a cup of coffee while their children played in the next room. Kurt shook his head.
"No good. I already went there to see if they had another one but apparently they don't make it anymore." He told her with a frown and she shook her head, looking back at her daughter.
"This is ridiculous! I should be able to find this stupid monkey. But I can't even remember where the last place she had it was." She complained and he nodded.
"I know, Sweetie. It must be frustrating." He agreed and she nodded.
"And it would be so much easier if Noah was home because I think it's more about him being missing than Mr. Jingles, but it's just not possible." She told him and he nodded.
"I know." He agreed again. "Hey, maybe we could put up posters, offer a reward or something." He suggested and Rachel smiled brightly, thinking that was a wonderful idea. She had plenty of pictures with Mr. Jingles in them, all she'd have to do would be cut Stella out of one of them so it was just Mr. Jingles and put them on posters.
"Kurt, you're a genius!" She said excitedly and he grinned.
"Well yes, of course." He agreed, flipping his hair back.
The posters were all made by the end of the next day and with a little help from her friends they were put up all over town by the end of the week. She really hoped that it had simply fallen out of her daughters arms on the street and someone had picked it up. Or else this would not do a bit of good.
A couple of weeks later Noah was walking to the stage for his sound check when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He did a double take but sure enough, there was Mr. Jingles, sitting on top of one of the roadies cases, a small black piece of cloth wrapped around it's head as a bandana and a pack of cigarette's under it's arm.
"Hey!" He yelled, rushing over to it and lifting it up. "Who found this?" He asked loudly, making everyone turn to look at him.
"Oh that. I found it backstage at one of our shows in the States, under some table. It's kind of become the tour mascot." One of the roadies told him and Noah ground his teeth together.
"Did you not hear me freaking the fuck out over the fact that my daughter lost her favourite stuffed monkey?" He demanded and the guy looked embarrassed. "I searched the whole bus and we've been looking everywhere for it and you've had it? This whole entire time?" He asked. He was not usually this demanding, he left that stuff to Rachel, but this was his daughter he was talking about. He was about ready to get this guy fired and possibly make it so he never worked in the business again.
"I didn't know..." The idiot started but Noah cut him off.
"You didn't know? You didn't know what? That this was my daughter's monkey? That I'd ever actually see it? That this was something that was going to get you fired?" He roared and the guy's eyes widened. "Yeah, that's right buddy, fired. You are so fucking fired it's not even funny. And what about the rest of you morons? Who else knew that he had Mr. Jingles, huh? Cause anyone who knew is totally fired!" He yelled.
"Puck, Dude, calm down." Finn told him, placing his hand on his arm. He was Puck's best friend as well as his drummer so he knew that he needed to get him to calm down.
"No way, Finn. Stella's been crying herself to sleep every night because she doesn't have her Daddy and she doesn't have Mr. Jingles and this asshole's been using him as the tour mascot!" He yelled, gesturing wildly with the hand holding Mr. Jingles, making the tiny bandana go flying off. Finn winced and nodded. "And we've all been looking for him. You've been looking for him, Artie's been looking for him, I've been looking for him, everyone's been looking for him. Doesn't this piss you off?" He asked.
"I know man." He assured him gently. "And yeah, it does piss me off. But come on, at least we have him back." He assured him and Noah nodded, taking a few deep breaths, looking down at Mr. Jingles.
"I gotta go wash this thing." He said, taking off quickly.
He didn't know what that guy had been doing to it so he was sure as hell going to wash it at least forty times before he could send it back to his baby girl.
"Um, Puck, I know you're pissed off about this whole thing but... I found these." Artie said, wheeling into Puck's hotel room that night, a bunch of photo's in his hands. Mr. Jingles appeared in all of them, wearing his little bandana, posed with the equipment boxes, at the sound mix table, in the lighting ducts, at the signs for each of the arena's they'd been in, and a bunch of stuff where he'd been posed doing dirty things as well but he threw those away.
"These are actually... pretty cute." He decided and Artie nodded.
"Yeah, so Finn and I were thinking..." He said and Puck rose his eyebrows, waiting for this grand idea his two best friends had cooked up.
Rachel came home after a long day at the theatre, holding Stella's hand as they walked into their building. She'd been at Kurt's all day and was dragging her feet, still missing Mr. Jingles (and her Daddy) tremendously. Rachel had gotten news from Noah that Mr. Jingles had been found but had been sworn to secrecy against telling Stella about it. She was about a day away from going against her promise and telling her daughter that he'd be home soon.
"Mrs. Puckerman? You have a parcel." Their doorman told her, rushing over to his desk and picking it up. Rachel's eyes brightened, seeing the postmark and sure that this was Mr. Jingles.
"Thank you so much." She told him, smiling brightly. "Stella Honey, why don't you carry this?" She asked and Stella nodded, taking the box and holding it close to her chest as they walked to the elevator.
They got into the apartment and Rachel could barely control her excitement. She'd seen a letter attached to the parcel so knew she should open that before letting Stella open the parcel. She told Stella to go clean up for dinner and quickly opened the letter once she was gone, seeing that there were two, one written to her and the other written to Stella. She grinned when she read what both of them said, the one to her explaining what had happened and what the other letter was as well as what the photo album was and the other a special one for Stella.
"Stella, why don't you come here and open this for me." She told her daughter, holding the box out to her. Stella nodded and opened the box, her eyes widening when she saw that it was Mr. Jingles as well as a photo album.
"Mr. Jingles!" She cried out, pulling him out and hugging him close to her. "Where have you been? You're very naughty for making me so scared." She reprimanded, wagging her finger at him, and Rachel chuckled.
"He sent a letter as well." She told her and Stella looked up at her in surprise. "Come sit down and I'll read it to you." She offered, patting the cushion next to her on the sofa. Stella nodded and rushed over to sit next to her, carefully, placing Mr. Jingles next to her on the sofa as well. She looked down at the letter in her Mommy's hands, not recognising the writing on the paper as her Uncle Finn's messy scrawl.
"Dear Stella,
I'm so sorry I made you sad when I didn't come home with you. But I saw you were sad about leaving your Daddy all alone while you and your Mommy went home so I decided to stay behind and look after your Daddy for you. I didn't want him to know that I was still here and looking after him because your Daddy's a silly boy who doesn't want anyone to know how sad he was to see you and your Mommy go home so I didn't let him see me. I was a roadie and it was really fun! I did a lot of things to help out with your Daddy's concert. I moved boxes around and cleaned the instruments and tested the microphones and made sure the sound was up so everyone could hear your Daddy. But then I heard your Daddy saying something about how much you missed me and it made me sad because I missed you too. So I went to your Daddy and let him know that I was there. We hung out for a little while and talked about how much we both missed you and decided that it would be for the best if I went home. I'm sorry I had you all worried about me and I'll try not to ever do it again.
Love, Mr. Jingles."
As soon as Rachel finished reading the letter Stella lifted Mr. Jingles up and hugged him tightly.
"It's okay, Mr. Jingles. I know why you stayed behind now." She assured him, kissing it's forehead like her Daddy always did for her. "What's that?" She asked curiously, pointing at the photo album.
"I don't know. Let's see, shall we?" Rachel asked and Stella nodded, letting her place the photo album on their laps.
Inside the photo album were pictures of Mr. Jingles doing all the things written in the letter. Rachel knew that these were the pictures that the roadie that had had him had taken, minus the inappropriate ones, and they were absolutely adorable. Stella squealed every time they turned a page and saw a new picture, she especially liked all the ones next to the signs of all the arena's Noah had played at, and giggled every time she saw him with the bandana on his head.
Then as they got further into the photo album Noah started appearing in them. There was a picture of him looking at Mr. Jingles with an over the top stern look on his face, as though he was just discovering he'd been with him the whole time. Then there was a picture of him sitting in a chair with Mr. Jingles in a chair opposite, looking like they were having a serious conversation. A picture of them looking at a picture of Stella followed that one and Rachel couldn't help but giggle at the faces her husband was pulling in the pictures.
A few more pictures followed those ones, one with Mr. Jingles on the neck of Noah's guitar as he played in front of a packed audience, one with him sitting on Finn's drum set as Finn played, another with him sitting on the arm of Artie's wheelchair as they watched Noah performing, and then another one of Noah holding him up to the microphone as though the stuffed monkey was singing instead of him. Rachel's favourite was of the three men and Mr. Jingles sitting around a small table playing poker, the stuffed monkey winning by a landslide if the huge pile of chips in front of him and the few chips in front of the others was any indication.
They closed the photo album after looking at the last picture, a picture of Mr. Jingles buying the box he'd been sent home in, and then closed the book.
"Mommy, can we go play now? I have so much that I have to tell Mr. Jingles from when he was gone." She asked and Rachel chuckled and nodded.
"Of course, Baby." She agreed, smiling as her daughter wriggled off the couch with a happy smile on her face. Rachel sighed happily at hearing her daughter happy and laughing again, flipping through the album to look at the pictures her husband and their friends had taken to cheer their daughter up.
Later that night, Rachel paused outside Stella's bedroom, hearing her talking softly to Mr. Jingles when she was supposed to be asleep.
"And I want to thank you for looking after my Daddy for me. Next time you can stay with him till he comes home, okay?" She whispered and Rachel couldn't help but smile tearfully.
"Well Babe, did she like it?" Noah asked later that night, speaking softly as though he had to worry about waking up their daughter.
"She loved it." She assured him, remembering that Stella had gone to bed holding onto the photo album as well as Mr. Jingles. Rachel had a feeling it was more because there were pictures of Noah in there than any other reason. "I heard her thanking him for looking after you and telling him that he could stay with you until the end of your tour next time." She added and he let out a small sound, the wind being knocked out of him with that one. His little girl was so amazing.
"That's some kid we have, Rach." He told her and she grinned.
"That's some father she has, Noah." She responded and he couldn't stop the huge smile from spreading across his face proudly.
On Noah's next tour, Stella pushed Mr. Jingles into his hands and demanded that he take him with him so he could look after him again, so he wouldn't get lonely and miss them too much. And when he came home it was with another photo album full of what he and Mr. Jingle had gotten up to while he was on tour.
This continued long after Stella believed that her stuffed monkey was really doing all these things, long after even her baby brother Ethan believed that Mr. Jingles was the one doing everything in the pictures or looking after their Dad. Mr. Jingles went on every tour Noah went on until he retired from touring and all of the photo albums from all of 'Mr. Jingles' tours were kept in the family living room where everyone could look at them whenever they wanted to, with Mr. Jingles sitting proudly up on the top shelf, looking after all of them.
Author: Kimmi
Summary: Rachel and Puck's daughter looses her favourite stuffed toy.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Glee. If I did I would be so rich it’s not even funny. And I’d hire some fanfic writers to write for Glee. Oh well.
Author's Note: For the Puck/Rachel Drabble Meme for This prompt. I feel I lost the prompt a little as the actual lost posters are only mentioned but oh well. Also, I'm not sure I like the ending, it might be too sentimental and hokey.
Rachel let herself into her apartment in New York, her sleeping daughter cradled gently in her arms. They'd just gotten back from being on tour with Rachel's husband. Noah Puckerman, or Puck to his fans, was a huge rockstar and was in the middle of a massive worldwide tour, his first ever tour. Rachel was a star herself, a Broadway star, and had gone along with their daughter Stella on tour with him for a little under half of the tour. She'd had to come home because her new play was about to go into it's first rehearsal and Stella was getting a little antsy moving from town to town anyway.
She locked the front door carefully behind her and then headed into Stella's room to put her into bed. She'd already been in her pyjama's for the flight home so it was just a matter of sliding her into her bed, tucking her in and kissing her goodnight gently before leaving the room to let her sleep. She'd absolutely loved being on tour with her Daddy and Rachel knew that seeing so much of the country at the young age of four was definitely a good thing for her. But now all she wanted to do was collapse into her own bed and try to get to sleep without the sound of her husband's horrendous snoring in her ear that she'd gotten used to over the years.
Early the next morning Rachel was woken up by a scream. She bolted out of bed in a panic and ran to her daughters room, one of her husbands heavy shoes in her hand to use as a really bad weapon, and breathed out a sigh of relief when she saw that Stella was perfectly fine, no one was in the house (they'd had a couple of scary moments with stalkers for both herself and Noah) but that Stella looked absolutely distraught.
"What's wrong, Baby?" She asked, still trying to calm her frantically beating heart. Stella's little lip quivered and she looked about a second away from a full blown meltdown.
"I can't find Mr. Jingles anywhere, Mommy." The little girl bemoaned, her large brown eyes already shining with tears. Rachel rose her eyebrows at the statement. Mr. Jingles was Stella's favourite toy, and had been her whole life. It was a stuffed monkey that had been given to her by her Uncle Kurt when she was just a tiny baby. She took it with her everywhere and was often found talking to it when she was left to play on her own for a little while. It was her best friend in the whole world and she loved that ratty old thing above all of her other toys.
(It used to give Rachel a complex. She'd bought her daughter countless stuffed toys over the years but she always threw them over for Kurt's stupid stuffed monkey toy. And don't think he didn't gloat about that!)
"I'm sure he's around here somewhere." She told her, going over to the bed and searching through the mangled blankets for the monkey. Stella was just as bad as her father with her tossing and turning, the blankets and sheets always ended up twisted around the end of the bed so she was sure that Mr. Jingles had to be in there somewhere.
When she couldn't find the monkey in the bed she dropped to her knees and peered under the bed but still no sight of the beloved toy.
"He's lost!" Stella cried out dramatically, flailing her little arms about in heartache. Rachel stifled a grin because her daughter was just so overdramatic it was adorable. (And she always claimed she had no idea where she'd gotten that trait from which always made Noah dissolve into pearls of laughter.)
"He has to be around here somewhere." She assured her, taking her daughter into her arms and hugging her tightly, running her hands up and down her back soothingly as she started to sob. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see her daughter so upset.
It was a little later that Rachel realised that she couldn't remember if Mr. Jingles had been in Stella's arms as she'd put her to bed in the first place. In fact, she couldn't even remember if she'd had him while they'd been in the cab from the airport. She felt absolutely terrible, knowing that there was a good chance that Mr. Jingles wasn't going to just show up somewhere around the apartment. Stella would be absolutely devastated if she couldn't have her beloved monkey with her and Rachel absolutely did not want that to happen.
"Noah, are you sure it's not on the tour bus?" She whispered into the phone one night, peeking out into the living room to check to see if her daughter was still watching the movie she'd put on for her. It was heartbreaking to see her staring at the television in what could only be described as depression. She usually had Mr. Jingles cradled against her chest as she watched TV and often spoke to him about what was going on like she always saw her Mommy do with her Daddy but now she was just watching the TV with a little frown on her face, nothing there for her to talk to.
"I've looked, Babe. Tore the whole bus apart looking for that stupid monkey. It's nowhere." Noah told her with a frustrated sigh. "It's gone." He added and she frowned.
"No, absolutely not. I will find that monkey if it's the last thing I do." She vowed and he snorted.
"How are you going to do that?" He asked and she sighed.
"I don't know. But we have to find him, Noah. She misses him terribly." She told him, peeking at her daughter again.
"She's lost him before and she was alright." He pointed out and she nodded. Yes, she remembered the time Mr. Jingles had disappeared for over a month only to turn up in the recording studio Noah had been working in at the time.
"This time's different. I think it's because you're not around. Having you both gone is hitting her hard." She told him and he frowned.
"I can't cancel the damn tour because my daughter lost her stuffed monkey." He pointed out. "I would but the record company would skin me alive." He added and she couldn't help but smile. He definitely would cancel his shows just to be with his daughter but that would lead to a whole lot of trouble if he did, he had a contract to uphold after all, but it was sweet knowing he would.
"I know, Honey." She assured him. "And that's why we have to find him." She pointed out and he sighed.
"I'll get Artie to call all the hotels we stayed at to see if it got left behind somewhere." He assured her and she grinned and nodded. Artie was their close friend as well as Noah's manager and he absolutely loved Stella to pieces so she knew he'd do whatever it took to get that monkey back for her.
"You're the best." She assured him. "I'm going to get Stella so she can talk to you, okay?" She asked and he hummed happily in agreement. "Stella, Daddy wants to talk to you." She called out and Stella came running on her little legs as fast as possible, taking the phone out of her mother's hands.
"Daddy? Did you hear? Mr. Jingles is missing. He's all alone in the world and he's probably scared." She announced dramatically and Rachel gave her daughter a sad smile.
Another few weeks went by with still no sighting of Mr. Jingles. Artie had heard back from the hotels they'd stayed at, no toy monkey's had been left behind at any of them. Stella was still extremely upset over not having her toy companion and nothing was cheering her up. Not even an unexpected visit from her Grandma Ava, Grandpa Leroy and Poppy Marshall could cheer her up. Or a play date with Kurt and Blaine's son Ryan, her best friend in the whole world (who wasn't a stuffed monkey). Rachel was getting desperate.
"Kurt, where did you get the original Mr. Jingles from? Maybe we can get a new one and she won't know the difference." She suggested as she and Kurt were sitting having a cup of coffee while their children played in the next room. Kurt shook his head.
"No good. I already went there to see if they had another one but apparently they don't make it anymore." He told her with a frown and she shook her head, looking back at her daughter.
"This is ridiculous! I should be able to find this stupid monkey. But I can't even remember where the last place she had it was." She complained and he nodded.
"I know, Sweetie. It must be frustrating." He agreed and she nodded.
"And it would be so much easier if Noah was home because I think it's more about him being missing than Mr. Jingles, but it's just not possible." She told him and he nodded.
"I know." He agreed again. "Hey, maybe we could put up posters, offer a reward or something." He suggested and Rachel smiled brightly, thinking that was a wonderful idea. She had plenty of pictures with Mr. Jingles in them, all she'd have to do would be cut Stella out of one of them so it was just Mr. Jingles and put them on posters.
"Kurt, you're a genius!" She said excitedly and he grinned.
"Well yes, of course." He agreed, flipping his hair back.
The posters were all made by the end of the next day and with a little help from her friends they were put up all over town by the end of the week. She really hoped that it had simply fallen out of her daughters arms on the street and someone had picked it up. Or else this would not do a bit of good.
A couple of weeks later Noah was walking to the stage for his sound check when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He did a double take but sure enough, there was Mr. Jingles, sitting on top of one of the roadies cases, a small black piece of cloth wrapped around it's head as a bandana and a pack of cigarette's under it's arm.
"Hey!" He yelled, rushing over to it and lifting it up. "Who found this?" He asked loudly, making everyone turn to look at him.
"Oh that. I found it backstage at one of our shows in the States, under some table. It's kind of become the tour mascot." One of the roadies told him and Noah ground his teeth together.
"Did you not hear me freaking the fuck out over the fact that my daughter lost her favourite stuffed monkey?" He demanded and the guy looked embarrassed. "I searched the whole bus and we've been looking everywhere for it and you've had it? This whole entire time?" He asked. He was not usually this demanding, he left that stuff to Rachel, but this was his daughter he was talking about. He was about ready to get this guy fired and possibly make it so he never worked in the business again.
"I didn't know..." The idiot started but Noah cut him off.
"You didn't know? You didn't know what? That this was my daughter's monkey? That I'd ever actually see it? That this was something that was going to get you fired?" He roared and the guy's eyes widened. "Yeah, that's right buddy, fired. You are so fucking fired it's not even funny. And what about the rest of you morons? Who else knew that he had Mr. Jingles, huh? Cause anyone who knew is totally fired!" He yelled.
"Puck, Dude, calm down." Finn told him, placing his hand on his arm. He was Puck's best friend as well as his drummer so he knew that he needed to get him to calm down.
"No way, Finn. Stella's been crying herself to sleep every night because she doesn't have her Daddy and she doesn't have Mr. Jingles and this asshole's been using him as the tour mascot!" He yelled, gesturing wildly with the hand holding Mr. Jingles, making the tiny bandana go flying off. Finn winced and nodded. "And we've all been looking for him. You've been looking for him, Artie's been looking for him, I've been looking for him, everyone's been looking for him. Doesn't this piss you off?" He asked.
"I know man." He assured him gently. "And yeah, it does piss me off. But come on, at least we have him back." He assured him and Noah nodded, taking a few deep breaths, looking down at Mr. Jingles.
"I gotta go wash this thing." He said, taking off quickly.
He didn't know what that guy had been doing to it so he was sure as hell going to wash it at least forty times before he could send it back to his baby girl.
"Um, Puck, I know you're pissed off about this whole thing but... I found these." Artie said, wheeling into Puck's hotel room that night, a bunch of photo's in his hands. Mr. Jingles appeared in all of them, wearing his little bandana, posed with the equipment boxes, at the sound mix table, in the lighting ducts, at the signs for each of the arena's they'd been in, and a bunch of stuff where he'd been posed doing dirty things as well but he threw those away.
"These are actually... pretty cute." He decided and Artie nodded.
"Yeah, so Finn and I were thinking..." He said and Puck rose his eyebrows, waiting for this grand idea his two best friends had cooked up.
Rachel came home after a long day at the theatre, holding Stella's hand as they walked into their building. She'd been at Kurt's all day and was dragging her feet, still missing Mr. Jingles (and her Daddy) tremendously. Rachel had gotten news from Noah that Mr. Jingles had been found but had been sworn to secrecy against telling Stella about it. She was about a day away from going against her promise and telling her daughter that he'd be home soon.
"Mrs. Puckerman? You have a parcel." Their doorman told her, rushing over to his desk and picking it up. Rachel's eyes brightened, seeing the postmark and sure that this was Mr. Jingles.
"Thank you so much." She told him, smiling brightly. "Stella Honey, why don't you carry this?" She asked and Stella nodded, taking the box and holding it close to her chest as they walked to the elevator.
They got into the apartment and Rachel could barely control her excitement. She'd seen a letter attached to the parcel so knew she should open that before letting Stella open the parcel. She told Stella to go clean up for dinner and quickly opened the letter once she was gone, seeing that there were two, one written to her and the other written to Stella. She grinned when she read what both of them said, the one to her explaining what had happened and what the other letter was as well as what the photo album was and the other a special one for Stella.
"Stella, why don't you come here and open this for me." She told her daughter, holding the box out to her. Stella nodded and opened the box, her eyes widening when she saw that it was Mr. Jingles as well as a photo album.
"Mr. Jingles!" She cried out, pulling him out and hugging him close to her. "Where have you been? You're very naughty for making me so scared." She reprimanded, wagging her finger at him, and Rachel chuckled.
"He sent a letter as well." She told her and Stella looked up at her in surprise. "Come sit down and I'll read it to you." She offered, patting the cushion next to her on the sofa. Stella nodded and rushed over to sit next to her, carefully, placing Mr. Jingles next to her on the sofa as well. She looked down at the letter in her Mommy's hands, not recognising the writing on the paper as her Uncle Finn's messy scrawl.
"Dear Stella,
I'm so sorry I made you sad when I didn't come home with you. But I saw you were sad about leaving your Daddy all alone while you and your Mommy went home so I decided to stay behind and look after your Daddy for you. I didn't want him to know that I was still here and looking after him because your Daddy's a silly boy who doesn't want anyone to know how sad he was to see you and your Mommy go home so I didn't let him see me. I was a roadie and it was really fun! I did a lot of things to help out with your Daddy's concert. I moved boxes around and cleaned the instruments and tested the microphones and made sure the sound was up so everyone could hear your Daddy. But then I heard your Daddy saying something about how much you missed me and it made me sad because I missed you too. So I went to your Daddy and let him know that I was there. We hung out for a little while and talked about how much we both missed you and decided that it would be for the best if I went home. I'm sorry I had you all worried about me and I'll try not to ever do it again.
Love, Mr. Jingles."
As soon as Rachel finished reading the letter Stella lifted Mr. Jingles up and hugged him tightly.
"It's okay, Mr. Jingles. I know why you stayed behind now." She assured him, kissing it's forehead like her Daddy always did for her. "What's that?" She asked curiously, pointing at the photo album.
"I don't know. Let's see, shall we?" Rachel asked and Stella nodded, letting her place the photo album on their laps.
Inside the photo album were pictures of Mr. Jingles doing all the things written in the letter. Rachel knew that these were the pictures that the roadie that had had him had taken, minus the inappropriate ones, and they were absolutely adorable. Stella squealed every time they turned a page and saw a new picture, she especially liked all the ones next to the signs of all the arena's Noah had played at, and giggled every time she saw him with the bandana on his head.
Then as they got further into the photo album Noah started appearing in them. There was a picture of him looking at Mr. Jingles with an over the top stern look on his face, as though he was just discovering he'd been with him the whole time. Then there was a picture of him sitting in a chair with Mr. Jingles in a chair opposite, looking like they were having a serious conversation. A picture of them looking at a picture of Stella followed that one and Rachel couldn't help but giggle at the faces her husband was pulling in the pictures.
A few more pictures followed those ones, one with Mr. Jingles on the neck of Noah's guitar as he played in front of a packed audience, one with him sitting on Finn's drum set as Finn played, another with him sitting on the arm of Artie's wheelchair as they watched Noah performing, and then another one of Noah holding him up to the microphone as though the stuffed monkey was singing instead of him. Rachel's favourite was of the three men and Mr. Jingles sitting around a small table playing poker, the stuffed monkey winning by a landslide if the huge pile of chips in front of him and the few chips in front of the others was any indication.
They closed the photo album after looking at the last picture, a picture of Mr. Jingles buying the box he'd been sent home in, and then closed the book.
"Mommy, can we go play now? I have so much that I have to tell Mr. Jingles from when he was gone." She asked and Rachel chuckled and nodded.
"Of course, Baby." She agreed, smiling as her daughter wriggled off the couch with a happy smile on her face. Rachel sighed happily at hearing her daughter happy and laughing again, flipping through the album to look at the pictures her husband and their friends had taken to cheer their daughter up.
Later that night, Rachel paused outside Stella's bedroom, hearing her talking softly to Mr. Jingles when she was supposed to be asleep.
"And I want to thank you for looking after my Daddy for me. Next time you can stay with him till he comes home, okay?" She whispered and Rachel couldn't help but smile tearfully.
"Well Babe, did she like it?" Noah asked later that night, speaking softly as though he had to worry about waking up their daughter.
"She loved it." She assured him, remembering that Stella had gone to bed holding onto the photo album as well as Mr. Jingles. Rachel had a feeling it was more because there were pictures of Noah in there than any other reason. "I heard her thanking him for looking after you and telling him that he could stay with you until the end of your tour next time." She added and he let out a small sound, the wind being knocked out of him with that one. His little girl was so amazing.
"That's some kid we have, Rach." He told her and she grinned.
"That's some father she has, Noah." She responded and he couldn't stop the huge smile from spreading across his face proudly.
On Noah's next tour, Stella pushed Mr. Jingles into his hands and demanded that he take him with him so he could look after him again, so he wouldn't get lonely and miss them too much. And when he came home it was with another photo album full of what he and Mr. Jingle had gotten up to while he was on tour.
This continued long after Stella believed that her stuffed monkey was really doing all these things, long after even her baby brother Ethan believed that Mr. Jingles was the one doing everything in the pictures or looking after their Dad. Mr. Jingles went on every tour Noah went on until he retired from touring and all of the photo albums from all of 'Mr. Jingles' tours were kept in the family living room where everyone could look at them whenever they wanted to, with Mr. Jingles sitting proudly up on the top shelf, looking after all of them.