Disclaimer: I do not own the characters herein. I make no money off of this.

Based around the idea that the Berry's work for SHIELD.

Hiram peeked into his daughter's room and was alarmed then amused to see the two large muscular boys sprawled out around her. Rachel lay back against her pillows one leg extended out in front of her balancing her iPAD on her other knee. Hiram walked in and chuckled when he saw that Puck had captured one leg and was hugging it like a teddy bear while Sam had both hands wrapped around her other ankle his head pillowed on his arm. Both boys slept the deep sleep of the exhausted. Rachel looked up at him and smiled and put her finger to her lips. Her hair was naturally curling about her shoulders; air drying from her recent shower. Hiram approved of this much more than the stick straight bangs she'd sported with Finn.

Hiram sat at the foot of the bed inbetween the boys. "I thought they were getting used to this."

"Extra long session today." Rachel explained quietly. She need not have bothered; the boys were dead to the world. They looked like Rachel had dragged them back in here, made them shower and then allowed them to collapse on her bed instead of trooping back across the compound to their own bunks.

Hiram nodded, "Are you okay Babydoll?"

"Yeah I'm used to this. Football did not prepare them. They're getting better though." Rachel wiggled her leg a bit but Puck just gave her a little squeeze and after rubbing his jaw against her thigh settled back asleep.

"Well okay Babydoll but they can't stay here. Send them back to the barracks after they wake up."

"Okay Daddy."

Hiram leaned over to kiss his daughter's head and then walked on out.

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One month earlier

While everyone was discussing their summer plans Puck, Sam and Rachel were silent. Rachel because most of the club was still sore over their National's loss. It wasn't her fault. She'd made it clear she wasn't interested and he kissed her! Why did she get the dirty looks?

Puck because he was still smarting over Lauren dumping him and the contemplation of what starting his pool business back up meant. His mom had caught on to what he was doing and put a different spin on it. Namely prostitution. He'd never thought of it like that but now that he had it didn't sit well with him. She'd also thrown out another word that had made him cringe even more; statutory rape. He'd started his pool cleaning business when he was fourteen and now at not quite eighteen it was still illegal; and illegal anything would get him thrown back in juvie but getting all those women in trouble didn't sit well with him either.

Sam was quiet because he was still homeless and this summer promised to be even harder for his family. He was willing to do literally anything to help them. He'd be eighteen in another month. That meant a broader range of job opportunities.

Finally the rest of Glee Club trickled out. Rachel was about to follow them when she saw Finn's shadow lurking and sat back down. He'd been trying to get her alone for days now. She didn't want to talk to him. Not only was she over the tall jock that kiss had destroyed all her hard work making friends in Glee and the fact that he was directly going against her explicitly stated wishes made her leery of his intentions. The fact that Kurt and Blaine had discovered from Artie that the entire New York date and song had been Puck's idea crushed his chances even more.

She turned to engage the two pensive boys in conversation. "So what are your plans Noah? Sam?"

"I might start my pool cleaning business back up."

Rachel wrinkled her nose.

"Yeah I know it's just a cover for whoring myself. I never thought of it that way before but now that I have I can't stop. Makes me feel dirty." Puck in an uncharacteristic move wrapped his arms around him grabbing his elbows looking like nothing more than a little boy giving himself a hug. It took everything in Rachel not to hop up the risers and do exactly that.

"Well if you do let me know. I'd be willing to do anything to help my family. Even that." Sam said a thread of despair and desperation entering his voice.

"As gangster as that is I have no desire to become a pimp." Puck sneered then looked away.

Rachel stared at them with wide eyes. The urge to hug them and tell them it would be alright was strong but really what could she do. Sam was homeless for crying out loud! Noah was damaged. They were adrift and there was nothing she could do because her summer would be spent far from here doing…. "Come with me!"

"What?" They frowned at her and she shrunk slightly at their gazes.

It was a spurt of the moment idea but as she actually thought about it it could work. "I'm…doing a summer internship with with my dads'…company. You could come with me. They're always looking for young men to join…er..come work for them. And they like to hire young so they can train you on the job to their specifications. You'll both be eighteen this Summer right? They pay well or at least I'm getting paid well and what you'd be doing would have a higher pay grade because you'd be actual employees." She looked at the tentative hope on each boy's face. "Come home with me tonight and talk to my dads. They've worked for these people for the last twenty years so they'll really be able to fill you in."

Sam looked contemplative as if he was warring with hope and despair inside. Puck stared at her eager happy face before asking the question that was running through Finn's mind right outside the door. "What about New York? Why you doing some internship when New York is your end all be all?"

"Of course I'm going to New York Noah. But I need money for that. I work during the Summers to build a little New York nestegg. It's not like I'll be discovered immediately you know. It's good to have experience with something else so I can get a job to support myself while I do auditions."

They stared at her; like everyone did when she mentioned something from her plan about her dreams. So she got a little excited! What was the big deal? "Come home with me. Talk to my dads they'll be able to give you more information."

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After a curious questionnaire and a couple of non-disclosure agreements Puck and Sam were on their way to where the Berry's spent their summer. The fact that they were flying there in a large military plane was concerning but they took their cue from Rachel who seemed perfectly at ease strapped to the inside of the giant plane. Somewhere in the 4 hour flight she'd even fallen asleep against her Daddy Leroy's shoulder. Once they got to the small base in the middle of nowhere Rachel did something crazy that gave them cause for a little bit more concern. She stood outside apart from them and said goodbye to the sun. Why she did that became apparent after they got into an elevator in the one story building that went straight down. Puck and Sam were shown to some barracks where they could store their stuff and then lead to a clinic where things were finally explained as they were given a full physical.

A man in a tight black t-shirt, black tactical pants with a bow and quiver on his back walked into the room. Everyone saluted as Puck and Sam stared. Rachel hopped down from the table and went to hug her Unca Clint.

"So Rach what's this company of your dad's called again." Sam asked with some trepidation.

"Well it's not a company…" They nod slowly and Rachel fidgets, "It's really a secret branch of the government." They nod, Rachel fidgets, Clint and some of the scientists start to smile. "We're the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division."

The boys muttered that to themselves before Puck shakes his head, "The what?"

"The Strategic Homeland…" Rachel starts to say again but stops as Clint puts a hand on her shoulder.

"Just call us SHIELD. I'm Hawkeye. I'm in charge around here. You two are part of our new recruits after your physical Rachel here will take you to Human Resources then to the Hunger Din then I recommend you two get in bed. Hell starts tomorrow." He chuckled and squeezing Rachel's shoulder walked on out again.

"What did he mean by that?"

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Puck collapsed in his bunk while Sam cursed the fact that he'd called top bunk. Various quiet cusses were repeated throughout the room as men of various ages drug themselves into the barracks to lay exhausted on their bunks until dinner.

Since starting here at SHIELD Puck had a new definition of badass and knew he didn't come anywhere near it. While his real-life street fighting experience came in handy during spars that was about the only leg up he had. Football training had nothing on HELL. Puck didn't even know what the acronym stood for or if it even was one. HELL began at 4 am with a brief break for breakfast at 8 then continued until lunch at 1 then stopped at 5 giving them just enough time to shower and nap before dinner at 6 followed by book work. Puck and Sam had barely even seen Rachel since they got here and that was only once or twice, usually across the training room or down the hallway.

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"This here is the Danger Room. Starting next week you all will have one or two sessions in here a week. This place will get you the combat experience you need with minimum loss of life." The trainer told them as he walked them into what looked like a control room. He began to explain the ins and out and workings of the place but Puck and Sam's concentration was immediately taken by what was taking place inside the actual Danger Room; namely one tiny Rachel Berry facing down a never ending horde of robots. She wasn't kicking and punching her way through the mechanical monsters either instead she was, well it looked like she was singing. She turned and spun like she was doing a dance number and the monsters several feet away just exploded. It was horrible and awesome to watch all at once. Most of the guys stared in amazement at what she was doing but all that was running through Puck's mind was that she was so tiny and a huge protective instinct rose up within him.

"Why is she alone? She's gonna get overwhelmed!" Sam's voice broke through the train wreck Puck was watching as exactly that began to happen. As more and more of the robots piled in around her Rachel couldn't defend herself on all sides. When one of the robots managed to finally get close enough to score a hit on her Puck saw red.

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"Rachel!" Puck jerked upright on a cot in the clinic.

"I'm right here Noah. It's okay."

He looked around to see Sam sitting on the next cot over but Rachel was perched on the end of his cot between his feet. He lunged at her and wrapped her up in his arms. "Don't you ever fucking do that again!"

"How do you feel, Puck?" Daddy Leroy Berry asked, standing nearby with a clipboard.

"How could you let them do that to her?" Puck shouted before turning and squeezing Rachel a little tighter, kissing her temple and tucking her head under his chin.

"Still angry and protective, I see." The tall black man chuckled and made a note on his clipboard.

"It was a training exercise Noah. I was never in any real danger." Rachel told him running her hands soothingly over his head and shoulders. They both faced Sam who looked pale and somewhat scared as he stared at them his hands wrapped around his knees with his ankles crossed.

Puck quickly ran both hands up up Rachel's thigh to where he'd seen the robot's saw-arm hit her. He encountered only smooth skin. He stared at the unblemished skin. She had been hurt. He knew she had been he'd seen the blood it was the last thing he remembered. As he moved his hand up and down he encountered a flakiness, his hand came away with tiny specks of dried blood.

"I healed her." Sam spoke up staring at her thigh. "I was right behind you when you ran out there and I hit my knees, put my hand over the bleeding. I just wanted it to stop….and it did. Same with you. Every time one of them hit you I'd...will the bleeding to stop and it would. After it was all over there was a lot of blood but once we wiped it away there wasn't a mark on any of us."

"Yes quite fascinating that you all turned out to carry the X gene." Leroy made another mark on his chart and then sat down beside Sam to explain. "We discovered Rachel had it very early on; eight month olds should not have that much control of their vocal cords. Once she hit puberty the gene manifested into an ability to control sonic energy. What you saw her doing in the Danger Room was using her power to create sonic waves and booms to literally blow the enemies away." Leroy shuffled through his papers. "When you boys came here we did a blood test, very standard actually, the checking for the gene is one of many things we do. We knew you had it but that it had not activated that we could see. The stress of seeing Rachel being attacked triggered it. While not on purpose it is fortuitous that this happened. Sam yours appears to have manifested in a healing ability. While Puck's seems to be a more normal general enhancement, he's stronger, faster and more durable than a non-evolved human. The rage black outs seem to be independent of his abilities. Speaking of which Rachel said that you'd mentioned them before. Are these blackouts common Puck?"

"Yeah." The Jewish boy buried his face into Rachel's hair and breathed deep before turning and looking at the sheet white Sam. He opened one arm up and waved him forward. Sam started at first but when Rachel also opened her arms Sam surged into them.

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"Our first field assignment! Can you believe it? Of course it's probably also our only field assignment until after we graduate but wow!" Rachel bounced ahead of them while Puck leered at her body in the tight SHIELD body armor and Sam smiled indulgently.

"As much as Broadway is her end all be all she seems to enjoy this an awful lot." Sam commented.

"Awful lot of training to go to waste." Puck replied.

They were walking down an abandoned wharf in Chile; patrolling in three man cells. They were with a much larger force but were far enough along in their training to be left unsupervised. They were investigating of all things, a zombie outbreak. Well a highly trained team of specialists was tracking the voodoo priest who was making zombies out of nearby villagers. They were just guarding the compound in case any of the crazed servants made their way here.

They were a kill squad simply because Rachel's and Puck's restrain was still something they were working on. Sam's control was not perfect either but over healing was only a concern because of how tired it made him. He was ecstatic that he could heal himself. His shoulder was better now. Meaning football, meaning scholarships. SHIELD would provide for their education if needed but he actually just liked the game too. Besides what if he wanted to do something besides SHIELD?

Rachel's gun hung by her side while Puck and Sam kept theirs up at ready. It was amusing that between the two large, heavily armed men the tiny girl in a skin tight suit was the most dangerous. Puck could crush bones but Rachel could decimate in a wave by singing a single note.

It was their fifteenth circle around the compound when Rachel's sharp ears caught the sound of something approaching. Puck and Sam took out 3 with headshots before the rest got in range of Rachel. With one operatic note all three finally got to see what Rachel's voice did to a living human body. To Puck and Sam it was anticlimactic. The bodies flew back but there was no blood no bursting. Closer investigation however revealed a disgusting conclusion. While the zombie's skin had held together their bones had been crushed to powder; without bones the bodies looked plastic and deflated. Rachel trembled and the boys quickly called it in and for the rest of the patrol kept her between them.

The next morning Rachel's still a bit subdued but a talk with her dad over the phone calmed her considerably. The next day when they destroyed another swarm Rachel didn't even flinch but when the boys did she told them the same them her dad told her. Espirit de corps is a powerful thing.

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Sam was given the guest room in the Berry household after learning that his checks home had allowed his dad to leave the family in Lima to go find another job. Before the Summer was up though he'd moved the family to Kentucky and Sam decided to stay with his team in Lima. Thanks to Sam's checks boosting them his dad was able to find a more stable, well-paying job and they were doing much better now.

They spent the last week of Summer in Lima and Puck spent almost all his time in the Berry's house. It sat uneasy with him to be across town from his team. Finally the Daddy Berries dug up a bunk bed for both boys to stay in. With Puck's mom always working away and his sister staying with her Nana his house was empty. Puck moved in four days before school started.

Rachel couldn't have been happier to have the boys around all the time. While her father's thought she might have been jealous of the attention her new housemates got she was instead ridiculously happy to have the companionship. It helped that although her dads couldn't shower her with as much attention since they were rabble-rousing with the boys Rachel was still their baby girl and the attention she received from the two boys more than made up it.

Sam was quickly becoming more and more like Puck and Rachel's little brother; a switch for him since he was normally the oldest child. Of course the way Rachel mother henned him he'd started jokingly calling her mom too. Like any dutiful son however he was very protective of the petite girl. They both enjoyed cooking and keeping their own strict diets much to the other three meat loving males in the houses commiseration.

If Sam was protective then Puck was extremely so. Not quite to the point of irritation because Rachel, as independent as she was, was needy and admittedly high-maintenance. She enjoyed being wrapped up by Puck on most occasions and the doting care he took with her. One could almost say she enjoyed it too much not that Puck was going to stop her. On the sidelines Hiram, Leroy and Sam took bets on how long before Rachel and Puck realized they were in a relationship. When Leroy found them making out it'd looked like Hiram won but this just relaxed the two so that kisses could be shared often. When Puck started calling Rachel, "Wifey" Sam jokingly called Puck "Dad" and Leroy thought he'd won but no it was not to be. Sam's bet was for the first week of school. Just as soon as Finn tried anything.

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Rachel was catching up with the other Gleek girls when the curtain rose on the stage and Finn and the other Gleek boys except Puck and Sam came out, even Mr. Schue was up there. There was smoke and lights and Rachel and the girls looked stunned at the elaborate song and dance.

At the end the girls clapped for the performance but many were still stunned. None more than Rachel when Finn with his cute smile and earnest expression went down on his knees, "Rachel, please give me one more chance. The guys and me worked on this all last month just for you. Give our love a chance!"

Rachel's mouth dropped open and she could feel the stares of the rest of the Glee club. The pressure was on as even Mr. Schue looked hopeful at their fairytale. Make our loss worth it, those looks seemed to say. But when Rachel thought of love she didn't see Finn anymore. She didn't imagine his arms around her. No, she felt a shaven scalp under her fingers and thicker, stronger arms wrapping her in love and protection. Where were her boys anyway? She glanced towards the doors.

"Rachel? What'd ya say?" Finn prompted.

Rachel felt like she would choke on the tension when the auditorium doors slammed open and Sam and Puck all but tumbled down the stairs. "Mommy save me!" Sam hollered before diving over the last three rows. He tucked into a row, stopped himself by slamming his feet on the stage then used it to propel himself back into Rachel's lap. Sam wrapped both arms around Rachel's waist nearly unsitting her before throwing one arm up in the air. "Safe!"

Puck rolled his eyes and strutted the rest of the way down the stairs to stand in front of Rachel blocking her view of the earnest Finn. "I think the word you're looking for is cheat, Momma's Boy." He lightly kicked Sam's leg with the side of his foot and chuckling Sam rose up to fall into the seat next to Rachel. Puck smiled down at his hot little Jewish-American Princess before she bounced up. She slid her hands up his thick arms bared by his black wife beater, relishing the hot smooth skin, the strength that thrummed beneath the surface. He leaned down and she rose on tiptoe to press their lips together. Puck curled one hand in her hair and the other on the small of her back to lift her up tighter against him. He and Sam were taking entirely different classes this year so he hadn't seen her since this morning. He heard Sam laughing but ignored him. He'd really missed regular kisses with his Wifey throughout the day.

He let her down and nuzzled her nose with his a bit before turning and flopping down into her seat and pulling her down into his lap. He noted the glitter, the stunned look on the Gleek's faces, Finn's position with his mouth open next to Mr. Schue had him choking back a belly laugh. So that's how Finn got all those solos. "What'd we miss Wifey?"

Rachel opened her mouth, paused, "Why were you late?" Cover up he looked at Sam who had also caught Rachel.

"We were signing up for ROTC. What'd we miss Mom?" Sam turned and grinned to let her know she was caught out. It had something to do with Finn and Sam was trying not to laugh because he knew he was about to win the bet the way Rachel's eyes slide to Puck then to Finn and she tried to give a warning with her eyes. He let out a chuckle, yeah he knew what she was trying to say, he was counting on it.

"Really why were you signing up for that?" Rachel said brightly trying to distract Puck seeing as how Sam was no help at all.

Puck slowly shook his head at her, "So we could keep in shape for HELL next year. What'd we miss Rachel?"

She shivered with the way he said her name; low and deep and all growly. She was convinced he knew exactly what that voice did to her and he did it on purpose. She was right. "Nothing. Nothing at all." She lied with a smile on her face, eyes bright and convincing.

"Wow Mom you really suck at lying." Sam commented.

Rachel pouted, and giving up laid her head on Puck's shoulder, "I know. Improv isn't my strong suit." She traced Puck's collar bones and sighing snuggled deeper into his chest. Puck had one hand on her hip holding her in place and the other curled possessively over her thigh. As her back was to the Gleeks she could only imagine what the looks on their faces were. She laid a gentle kiss on the taunt muscles of Puck's neck. No one could say she hadn't tried to stop it from happening. Granted she hadn't tried very hard. She began weaving together what they were going to tell her dads to explain Puck's suspension.

"Hey Finn you know being on your knees like that in front of Mr. Schuster makes it look like you're about to suck him off and if that is the case? Get a room Dude. Seriously." Puck retorted.

"Puck!" Mr. Schuster barked out but quickly shuffled away from Finn. "We just had a performance. Which you missed by being late."

"Nice use of glitter." Sam commented in a thoroughly nice guy sort of way if not for the sardonic smirk on his face.

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"I'm very proud of you Noah for keeping your cool and not attacking Finn." Hiram and Leroy looked at each other over their tea in the kitchen as they waited for their 'kids' to return from their first day back.

"Nah not worth it Wifey. I know you're over his ass. He keeps pushing though and I'm gonna make it real clear to him that you're taken."

"I am?" Rachel's voice was half-questioning, half-hopeful.

Sam walked in and calmly held his hand out.

"Of course Wifey. You're mine."

"And you are mine."

Hiram and Leroy calmly laid $50 each in Sam's hand.

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