Title: Metaphors and Dinosaurs
Fandom: Glee
Pairing: Puck/Rachel
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Vaguely Season 2
Word Count: 2,891
Disclaimer: Don't own Glee.
Author's Note: This is unbetad. Written for my best friend in the whole wide world as a birthday present. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALLI! This stems from a conversation we had a loooong time ago on tumblr and ended with me promising a fic that included: a pterodactyl, a Yeti, and a gnome.
Summary: Rachel's always been a little bit psychic so when she has a strange dream about a pterodactyl, she doesn't ignore it, instead does everything in her power to keep it from coming true.

"Finn, I've made my decision and its final." Rachel stormed into the choir room and Puck looked up. It still amazed him that Rachel could storm into a place but the girl had storming down to an art.

She stopped in front of the bleachers and looked at her normal seat in the front of the class, the one she'd sat in next to Finn for the whole year, and then stepped past it, climbing up to the second level and taking the empty seat next to Puck.

"Noah," she said calmly as if she hadn't just hadn't just blown up at Finn in the hallway.

"Berry," he nodded before going back to tuning his guitar. She pulled the sparkly pink binder that she kept all her sheet music in out of her bag and stared down at the cover. Puck snuck a glance at it and noticed that since the last time he'd seen it Rachel had scribbled Rachel loves Finn, Rachel & Finn 4-ever and other variations thereof all over it. She opened it quickly, angrily yanked out the sheet music she needed, and then shoved the binder back into her bag as if looking at it were physically painful for her.

"Everything…ok?" Puck asked cautiously as she dug out a pencil and started scribbling on the sheet music, crossing notes out and adding in new ones as she re-arranged the song – a song that looked really familiar to Puck.

"Everything is going to be just fine," Rachel said taking a deep breath and offering him a huge, genuine smile. The smile fell slightly but didn't disappear as she continued to look at him with an expression on her face that Puck couldn't seem to figure out.

"Berry?" Puck frowned.

"Sorry," she blushed and ducked her head, going back to the sheet music.

Finn walked in a minute later, stared at Rachel, glared at Puck and then dropped into his usual chair in a huff. "What did I do to Hudson?" Puck asked Rachel confused and when she opened her mouth to answer Mr. Shue walked in.

"Alright guys. Sectionals is in three weeks so today I really want to lock down the duet. Finn and Rachel," Mr. Shue frowned when he noticed Rachel wasn't in her usual seat. He looked around the room and paused when he saw her, her hand stretching as high into the air as she could get it. "Yes, Rachel?"

Rachel stood up, taking the sheet music with her before walking down the bleachers to stand next to Mr. Shue. "I know that we decided Finn and I would sing a duet for Sectionals. But I've recently come to the realization that this may not be the wisest course of action if we want to make it Nationals. So I'd like put before the Glee club an alternative; Noah I and sing the duet instead." Rachel smiled broadly.

"Rachel," Mr. Shue looked at her confused. "The song we chose isn't really right for Puck's voice."

"I know, but we've been working on a song that I think will work really well." Rachel passed the sheet music in her hands to Mr. Shue and he looked over it.

"You've been working on a song together?" Finn asked Rachel then turned to glare at Puck.

"No, we were just messing around," Puck protested. They'd been roped into helping out in the after school program at their Temple and one day when the kids were driving them up the wall he'd pulled out his guitar and he and Rachel just started jamming.

"This is good," Mr. Shue said motioning to the sheet music. "I just…I don't understand what happened? What brought this on?"

"Yeah Rach, why don't you tell everyone what brought this on." Finn said crossing his arms over his chest.

"Finn," Rachel sighed.

"She had a dream," Finn turned around and told the rest of the Glee club. "And all because of that she doesn't want to sing with me at Sectionals, in fact she doesn't want to do anything with me anymore."

"Hold up, you and Finnessa are splitsvile?" Santana said, infinitely more interested in what was going on now. "Who had three weeks before Sectionals in the pool?" She looked around the choir room and everyone dug into their bags.

"You bet on our breakup?" Rachel said, momentarily distracted.

"Duh," Santana said as Kurt pulled out a piece of paper and waved it in the air excitedly.

"Kurt!" Rachel put her hands on her hips in disapproval.

"Sorry but she was giving really good odds," Kurt said sheepishly.

"I'm sorry, can we get back on the subject at hand, like the fact that you want to change the song we've been working on for months, three weeks before Sectionals, because of a dream?" Mr. Shue asked Rachel. "Also gambling is bad." He said absently to the other kids. "And illegal."

Santana motioned to Kurt that she would catch him after glee and the class turned their attention to Rachel.

"Well, we were on stage at Sectionals-, singing our duet," Rachel said sheepishly recounting her dream from the night before. "When this pterodactyl came swooping into the auditorium."

"A pterodactyl?" Mr. Shue asked and Rachel nodded.

"It dived at the crowd a couple of times before heading straight for the stage," Rachel said, the fear she remembered feeling in her dream slowly coming back to her, even though she knew it was ridiculous and a pterodactyl wasn't just going to come flying into the choir room. "It dive bombed the piano and ate Brad," she turned around smiled sadly at the pianist. "Sorry." He just shrugged and she turned back to the others to finish. "Then suddenly it was coming straight for me. And I reached out for Finn and he wasn't there," she spared a glare at Finn who was looking at her as if she was insane. "He'd run away to save himself and just left me to be eaten."

"In a dream," Finn pointed out to everyone, noticing that all of the girls and Kurt were giving him the same glare that Rachel was.

"But then right before the pterodactyl got to me, Noah appeared out of nowhere and pulled me to safety," she finished looking up and smiling at Puck who shifted in his seat a bit uncomfortably.

"Ok. And this is why you want to do the duet with Puck instead of Finn?" Mr. Shue asked.

"Yes," Rachel nodded, blushing a little.

"It was a dream Rachel," Finn said annoyed. "It doesn't mean anything."

"Don't belittle this. You know I'm a little bit psychic," Rachel said, starting to get annoyed.

"So what are you saying? Puck is going to save you from a dinosaur?" Finn scoffed.

Rachel sighed and shook her head. "The dinosaur is a metaphor Finn."

"A metaphor for what?" he asked confused.

"Failure obviously," Rachel told him seriously. Then as if realizing something she turned to Brad and winced. "No offense."

Brad glared this time but offered her a small shrug because he couldn't exactly argue with that.

Finn laughed and Rachel turned back to him with a stern look on her face. "And what are you laughing at?" she asked him.

"Puck? Puck is going to save you from failure?" Finn asked through his laughter. "I wouldn't count on it."

"Hey!" Puck jumped up and Rachel moved forward to put a hand on his arm, stopping him. He looked down at her and saw a strange glint of something he'd never seen in her eyes before.

"As a matter of fact, he's already done it!" Rachel screamed at Finn.

"Oh yeah?" Finn asked, still laughing.

"Yeah," Rachel said. "He saved me from making the biggest mistake of my life and throwing my future away on a-a-a…douche bag like you,"

The entire Glee club froze because one, Rachel was mad and they'd seen her upset, and they'd seen her annoyed, but they'd never seen her mad before, not like this. And two, because Rachel just called Finn a douche bag.

"When was this exactly?" Finn looked between Puck and Rachel and then down at Rachel's hand which was still on Puck's arm.

"Last month," Rachel said a bit more quietly, losing some of her steam.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Hey Berry, what's this history project that everyone's freaking out about?" Puck asked, looking around the library and dropping into the seat next to Rachel.

Her hand stilled, the pen leaving a long line of ink all the way down the page as she turned to face him, her eyes wider than he'd ever seen them before. "Noah!" she squeaked. The librarian glared and put a finger to her mouth. "This project is 50% of our grade. It was assigned at the beginning of the semester. Mr. Carpenter's been talking about it all year. How can you not—you could fail." She said her breath coming quicker as her eyes darted around the room. "It's ok, don't panic, don't panic. We still have a few weeks. I can help you, we can do this. First we have to pick an easy topic, maybe the Renaissance? No that's ridiculous there's too much to cover. Oh, the Spanish Inquisition maybe?" She grabbed a notebook and started frantically scribbling down notes.

"Berry, relax." Puck laughed at the way her face was turning a strange shade of red. "I was just kidding."

"What?" Rachel stopped writing and looked over at him.

"It was a joke, I started mine like the second week of class, it's pretty much finished. Just need someone to read over my paper for me." Puck looked at her hopefully.

"That wasn't funny," Rachel closed the notebook and shoved it back in her bag, going back to the papers she'd been working on before.

"It was kinda funny," Puck said. "Well for me." Rachel glared at him. "I'm sorry." He offered and Rachel deflated slightly. "You'll still look over my paper right?"

"I suppose." Rachel said after a minute.

"You're not working on yours are you? Figured you'd have yours done a while ago." He looked over her shoulder at the papers on the desk and frowned. "What the hell Berry?" He snatched the pages right out from under her pen and stood up, turning away from her.

"Shhhhh," the librarian scolded them loudly.

"An application to the University of Ohio? The University of Ohio?" Puck looked down at her. "What happened to New York? What happened to NYADA?"

"It's just," Rachel stood up and tried to grab the papers back but Puck pulled them out of her reach. "It's just a safety school."

"No," Puck shook his head. "You've got like five safety schools. And they're in New York. Your dad's told me you already got into AMDA and Marymount."

"Finn thought—"

"Finn thought?" Puck interrupted her.

Rachel put her hands on her hips and glared at him again. "Finn thought the likely hood of him getting into a school in New York wasn't very high and we should have a back-up plan so that we could still be together." Puck just stared at her as if she was speaking another language. "It's not that big a deal. So I don't go to school in New York. That's not what's important, Broadway's what's important and I can still do that."

"No," Puck said tearing the papers in his hands down the middle.

"Noah!" Rachel screamed and the librarian looked over at them in annoyance.

"No, this is ridiculous." He tore the pages again into smaller and smaller pieces. "You're going to New York. Screw Finn.

You've been all about New York since you were 7 and your Dad's took you to see Beauty and the Beast. The fact that Finn obviously doesn't understand that means he doesn't understand you."

"He does," Rachel protested. "He just wants us to be together."

"Bull shit. You're the only one of us who has a hope in hell of getting out of this town. And if Finn really wanted to be with you he'd do everything he had to do to be where you were going to be, not hold you back. I'm not gonna let you throw your future away on a douche bag like Finn Hudson."

"He's not holding me back," Rachel said a bit lamely. Puck just stared at her and dropped the pieces of the application in the trash can without another word. "I can just get another one!" she called after him as he walked out of the library.

"But you won't," Puck called back.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"I thought you were still mad at me about that," Puck told her and Rachel smiled at him.

"No, of course not," she shook her head. "I mean I was in the moment, but then I realized you were right."

"Hey!" Finn protested.

"Ok," Mr. Shue intervened. "Rachel if you don't want to sing with Finn anymore I guess I can't make you."

"This is crap Mr. Shue," Finn jumped up.

"Actually every time Finn and Rachel sing the duet, we lose," Quinn jumped in.

"That is true," Mercedes jumped in.

"And Rachel and Puck do have some weird musical chemistry thing going on," Santana said.

"Puck?" Mr. Shue turned to him.

"I'm down for whatever," Puck shrugged.

"Great then it's settled," Mr. Shue clapped his hands. "Can we move onto the choreography for the group number?"

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Puck smiled when he saw Rachel standing by his locker a couple months later, a large Tupperware box clutched in her hands. This had been happening more and more since Sectionals and Puck didn't even bat an eye anymore. Though he'd probably gained about 10 pounds.

"Another dream?" Puck asked taking the Tupperware from her as she nodded mutely and pulled the top off. He grabbed a cookie and shoved it in his mouth, moaning with appreciation. He saw Mike's hand sneak towards a cookie and Puck closed the lid forcefully, yanking the box toward him protectively. "Dude, don't even. I earned these."

"A dream version of you earned them. So not the same thing." Mike said annoyed as they walked away.

"And you haven't earned them yet technically," Rachel said sheepishly. "But I have every confidence that you will, someday."

"Cool, so what did I save you from this time?" Puck asked chewing on the cookie.

"A Yeti," Rachel said as Puck opened his locker.

"That's like the abominable snowman right?" Puck smiled when Rachel nodded. "Awesome. Look, I've been thinking about what you said, about community college." Puck said. They'd been hanging out more and more since Rachel and Finn broke up, especially while preparing for Sectionals and Rachel had taken a personal interest in Puck's future. She'd said that if he was going to save her from failure than at least she could return the favor.

"I decided went online this weekend and checked a few out."

"That's great," Rachel smiled at him.

"In New York," Puck added and Rachel paused in the middle of the hallway.

"In New York?" she asked quietly.

"I'd have to establish residency for a year before I could apply but that's not really a big deal. I can get a job, maybe find an open mic night or something. I mean it's like you said, if I really want to pursue my music New York's the place to be huh?"

Rachel nodded, smiling at him. "That's great Noah, really really great."

"Whatever," Puck started walking again. He was saved from saying something stupid when he saw Santana and Brittany coming down the hall heading for them. That wasn't what had them confused though, it was the large garden gnome that Brittany was cradling in her arms that gave them pause. "You seeing what I'm seeing?" Puck asked.

"Yeah," Rachel nodded.

"What's up?" Puck asked when Santana and Brittany reached them.

"We've got a free period so Shue's gonna let us into the auditorium. We're gonna start on the choreography for the group number this afternoon and we need to set up the stage." Santana said.

"Ok," Rachel nodded slowly. "But where does the gnome fit into this?"

"Oh," Brittany smiled, looking down at the gnome fondly. "I borrowed him from my neighbor's yard. He's cute huh?"

"Adorable," Rachel nodded.

"We're gonna use him as stand in for Finn," Santana explained. After Finn broke Rachel's nose they all decided that he should work with Mike solo until he got the steps down well enough to join the group. "Hell, he's probably a better dancer."

"He can't dance Santana," Brittany scolded her girlfriend. "His feet are stuck together." She said almost sadly. "Oh but maybe if we got a chisel…" Brittany suggested as they walked away.

"So this Yeti," Puck asked, "What was he a metaphor for?"

Rachel's face fell for a second. "I've been thinking about that all weekend," Rachel said walking with him. "I think it might be loneliness."

Puck looked over and noticed that she seemed almost nervous telling him that. "So I'm supposed to save you from loneliness?" Puck asked and Rachel nodded. "No problem," Puck threw his arm over her shoulder and tugged her in closer to his body. "I can do that in my sleep. You couldn't get rid of me if you tried."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Puck nodded.