September 30 Lima Police Department

"Noah."

Puck could count one hand the people who still called him Noah. None of them had the smooth baritone of the man standing outside the bars. He looked up into a mirror had the mirror aged him 20 years.

"Hey Tate." Puck looked back down at the ground and internally braced himself for yelling. Mom had been by to wail and disown, Nana Connie with her staring angrily hissing he was just like his father. Finally Bobeshi and Zeyde had come down and told him how disappointed they were in him but that they would try to get him out and would contact his father. The man himself that now stood before him.

"Get up Zun. I've thrown your bail and talked them into to not pressing charges with some… conditions." The door clanked loudly as the sneering officer let his slumped figure out before slamming the door shut again. Puck followed his dad down the hall to sign out and finally out to his grandfather's old truck where he finally breathed a sigh of relief. Three days he'd rotted in that jail cell with the scum of Lima. He'd woken up there with no idea what he'd done to get there but didn't think it was too serious till he'd been pulled before a judge.

His dad started to explain what had happened while staring straight ahead as he drove them out of town to his grandparent's. Luckily the toxicology report confirmed his account of blacking out after drinking a bottle of cheap whiskey. They said he'd had so much alcohol in his system it was a miracle he lived and no surprise he didn't remember. The 7-11 owner had known him well, he'd even poured his heart out to him about the baby one night while drunk though not quite as drunk as he was the night he was arrested. Apparently he'd got home, stole his mom's car, drove it into the 7-11 building and tried to load the ATM into it. The 7-11 owner, John, had tried to talk to him but said he'd been muttering to himself about having enough money to get Beth back and had finally waited until he'd sat down and cried when he found himself unable to actually move the large machine. Someone else had called the cops but John refused to press charges. After some wheeling and dealing it would be reported as a drunken accident and John would collect the insurance for the store. Noah was off the hook, kind of. His dad had agreed to take him away till Chanukkah and he would work off some of the damages in John's store after that. Bobeshi was getting his school work and tomorrow they would get his things from his mom's house.

In her rant at him in jail he was once and for all kicked out. She kicked him out every other month or so. He'd go stay at Bobeshi's or Nana's or Finn's for a few days then go back home everything forgotten. Luckily by the time Quinn had come to stay he'd already told her and served his time out so it hadn't happened while she was there although when she left to stay with Mercedes he'd been out for a week.

So now he'd move into his room at Bobeshi's permanently and would be living on the road with his dad till Chanukkah by the judge's agreement. Had Zeyde not talked his dad into coming for him he'd be going to juvie but his dad, having spent some time in prison himself, had gotten back to Lima in time to bail him out.

It wasn't like he never saw his dad since he left when Puck was 10. He came home for the High Holidays when he could. He continued Puck's guitar lessons always teaching him something new or bringing home new music. They never talked about Puck's mom or little sister.

They pulled up the gravel drive and the dogs started up. When the truck finally stopped Puck lowered himself to the ground slowly. Besides slamming a car into a brick wall he'd taken some beatings in the jail cell as well. His whole body felt like one big bruise and he was filthy. He petted the three big mutts that crowded around him as he waded through their bodies on to the porch. Bobeshi met him at the door wiping her hands with a dish towel and presented her cheek. He leaned down to kiss her and she smiled sadly up at him.

"Go take a shower boychik supper's almost ready." He nodded silently and quickly walked to the back of the small house where the bathroom was. He turned the water on as hot as it would go before scrubbing his skin pink. Once he felt a little more like his normal clean self he got out and found a small stack of clothes on the bathroom counter. They were his dad's and a little too big all around but he rolled up the sleeves and cuffs and padded barefoot to the kitchen where Zeyde and Tate sat as Bobeshi set the last dish on the table.

He sat down across from Tate and listened quietly as Zeyde said the blessing before quickly filling his plate and eating as quickly and cleanly as he could. Bobeshi did not tolerate a sloppy eater. He'd had half a sandwich in three days and the empty hollow feeling in his middle had made the time in that dank hole that much worst. The silence lasted for several minutes before Bobeshi began talking about something the Temple was doing. Puck was on his third helping before he looked up. Bobeshi continued on with only an occasional word from Zeyde to continue. It reminded him of being with Rachel how she'd talk and talk while he replied only occasionally.

He glanced at his Tate. He and mom had never been like that. Dinners had were quiet affairs in front of the TV or loud and angry fights. Even at 10 he'd known Tate wasn't sticking around much longer. He left on jobs for longer and longer amounts of time getting in various amounts of trouble just like Puck. He'd been in prison for 6 months when Puck's little sister was conceived. Once he was out and found out he'd trashed the house in a blind rage and filed for divorce.

Puck had spent the next five years being compared to his worthless father and looking around the table he could easily see why. Puck got mistaken for a full grown man sometimes but standing next to his dad and grandfather he always felt like the half grown boy he was. Zeyde and Tate had evened out at 6'3", broad shoulders, broad chests, big hands, hazel eyes, dark curly hair cut close, smooth, resonant baritones and that Puckerman charm. If Tate was Puck in 20 years then Zeyde was Tate in 20 more. Bobeshi was a petite round woman with bright brown eyes, and Puck's mom a short and thin black haired woman. None of either woman could be found in the three men sitting at the table. They looked like they'd been cloned 20 years apart. He wondered what Beth looked like.

"You're thinking about her again aren't you Bubele." He looked to see Bobeshi looking at him. He nodded and looked back at his plate. When she didn't say anything else he looked to see her waiting for him to speak.

He sighed gently under his breath, "Thinking about what she looks like. What she will look like. I've never seen any Puckerman girls."

"Isn't there any way for you to see her? Pictures from the adoptive parents? Things like that? I at least always had a picture of you." Puck looked at his Tate and for the first time wondered not about how easy it was to leave him behind but how hard it must have been.

"How did you do it?" Puck asked quietly for once contemplative instead angry.

"Didn't have much of a choice did I? Fresh out of prison there isn't a court in the world that would have given me custody of you. Idiot that I was I didn't even read the damn paper before I signed it. Showed up three months later with a couple of baseball tickets and found out just what full custody meant." He snorted, "Supervised visits only. You remember that?"

"Yeah I remember." He remembered jumping down the stairs, slamming into his father's legs. Tate had smiled down at him and he thought, 'Mommy's wrong. Tate still loves me.' Then Mom had said something and Tate had roared at her. Little Noah had ran and hid while they had fought. The next day Zeyde had taken him to the ballgame and they'd met Tate there. Tate explained that he'd be by for his birthday and the high holidays but he'd be away for the rest of the time. Tate loved him was repeated over and over that day but he'd heard different when he got home. His mom had never stopped telling him how horrible his dad was.

"It wasn't till a month ago when you turned 16 that you could even be in a vehicle alone with me." Tate's fists clenched angrily.

Easy to see where Puck got his temper too. "So what happens now."

"We'll pick your things up from your mom's house tomorrow while she's at work. Move you in here. Then you'll pack your bags and head out with me to California where we'll catch up to the concert I'm traveling with right now. See if we can't get you on as a roadie, God knows we need'em." Tate explained as he sat back in his chair letting his big frame relax.

"What about school?"

"I already talked to your teachers. They're getting a packet together for you to finish by Chanukkah." Bobeshi told him while she got up and started gathering dishes. Both Noah and Nathan surged to their feet and waved her down before moving to clean the table. Together they set to cleaning up the dishes in comfortable silence. None of the Puckerman men were big talkers.

By the time they were finished in the kitchen Zeyde was plucking softly at his guitar in his rocking chair. Nathan, Puck's Tate, smiled and popping open a case in the corner laid a guitar in Noah's hands before retrieving his own. With the familiar instrument in his hands he relaxed for the first time in days. With Bobeshi on the piano they played until bedtime.