Puck hadn't spoken to him in years when the call came. Puck was sitting behind the wheel of his jeep at a stoplight, waiting for the idle mid-afternoon traffic to surge ahead, when he heard his phone blaring somewhere from the backseat. He waited until he was through the intersection before pulling into an empty parking lot so he could scrounge around on the floorboard in search of the device. There would have been a time when would have left one hand on the wheel to reach behind him for his phone, but that was before he'd spent the last several years leaving most of those bad habits behind.

It had been at least a decade since he had last been back to Lima, Ohio. He wasn't the self-professed badass that had ruled the halls of William McKinley High School with an iron fist and false bravado. Long gone was the ridiculous Mohawk that had defined his adolescence. He hadn't worn a lettermen jacket in years. All of those bad boy traits that had made girls swoon, boys admire, mothers fear and fathers anger weren't part of his personality anymore. He didn't have to worry that another arrest would give his own mother high blood pressure. He simply wasn't that guy anymore.

Instead, he was a responsible lieutenant colonel in the United States Army who'd spent the better part of the last ten years commanding forces in various parts of the Arabian Peninsula in a vain attempt to avoid confronting his past. It was easy in the desert. Okay, so maybe it wasn't exactly simple, but Puck knew the way that it worked. He liked the Army life. Even more than that, he was good at it. It suited him well, and he had built a strong and respected career on his merits alone. No one cared about who he used to be in the Army. They just cared about how quickly he could put a troop together, how accurate he was in target shooting, how well he could keep a secret.

His mother hadn't exactly been thrilled when he had signed up for the Army immediately after graduation, but it was the best option for him at the time. He had figured that he'd do a quick four years and then maybe go to college on the GI Bill. It was really the only way for a guy like him. He didn't have the grades for a scholarship and his mom didn't have the checkbook for tuition. It only took him six months to know that was where he belonged. His mother had cried the night he called to tell her that he reenlisted, but he knew that they were tears of pride rather than fear this time around. She was a proud military mom, with the yellow ribbon tied around the tree when he was deployed that first time to Afghanistan. She didn't take it down until she moved into the condo across town after his sister graduated from college.

So he had left Lima and never really looked back. He left for basic training a few days after Finn and Rachel's wedding right after graduation, not even able to fully say goodbye to them since they were still on their honeymoon. It had just been a quiet circle of a few people in his driveway. His mom and sister had held onto him so tightly during that first goodbye. Quinn had turned up, Mike and Blaine too. Shelby had even brought Beth by for a quick visit, and it was the only time Puck allowed himself to tear up during the whole thing. Then, he had climbed into the back seat of the taxi that would take him to Port Columbus to fly out west. He hadn't stepped foot in Ohio since.

The Army life didn't really give you too much time for anything else other than the military. Climbing the ranks in his career meant volunteering for active duty, working holidays, taking the overnight shifts so that the other guys could go home to their wives and children. Puck didn't have any of that. He just had a sister and a mother who understood enough that they flew out to see him so that he didn't have to go home. He worked hard but was often lonely. This was what his choices in life had afforded him.

His life couldn't have been any different from Finn's. The tall boy had turned into a rugged man who'd achieved every goal he'd set for himself back in high school. Starting with that first summer after high school when Rachel had become his wife, Finn had worked diligently to build the life with his wife that she had always wanted for them. That meant packing up everything they owned and moving to New York City so that she could pursue all of her wildest dreams on Broadway. He had been supportive from the moment that they said "I do," and had spent the better part of the next decade building his entire world around her.

Rachel had found great success from the moment they had landed in New York. She had immediately become the darling of the New York Academy of the Dramatic Arts. With Kurt at her side, she had taken on all the competition to climb to the top of her class. This led to prime auditions in school productions and eventually professional shows of varying degrees of importance. Her career trajectory was red-hot from the moment that the Big Apple took notice, and Finn had been the proud husband at her side every step of the way.

She had started out with a few student productions before she was offered an Off-Broadway workshop reimagining of "Little Shop of Horrors." Two months later, Rachel originated the lead role in the stage version of "Love Actually." Once that earned rave reviews, the offers really started to pour in. She took a few key supporting roles in various classic musicals before she finally landed the lead of "Funny Girl," which was being reopened on Broadway. The critics loved her from the moment previews opened, and the show sold out every performance that first year. Tony talks soon followed, and Rachel achieved her ultimate dream at the ripe age of 23.

Finn, in the meantime, had been happy to go to school quietly without the flashes of adoring paparazzi and fans. He had once dreamt of taking on acting dreams of his own but soon found himself more attracted to the teaching aspect of the performing arts. Will Schuester had become a role model, mentor and second father to him in high school, and Finn felt it was his destiny to pass those gifts on to another lost kid like he'd been. He finished his classes at NYU somewhere in the middle of the pack but with a degree nonetheless. His graduation day was the only day Rachel took off from "Funny Girl" all year.

Graduation from college had sent them to the suburbs looking for the home where they would start their family. Rachel was still working on "Funny Girl" for the moment but an end was in sight. Her plan was to work until she was too pregnant not to, and then she'd take a few months off to have a baby while she looked for the next big role. Once they had put down a sizeable down payment on a cute prewar bungalow in Westchester and Finn had found his dream job as a music director at a local high school, the two of them began the surprisingly quick process of getting pregnant. Jack was born a year later, and Gracie had followed two years after that.

Everything had been pretty perfect for a while after Jack and Gracie were born. Rachel took time off from the stage with both but recorded a collection of Broadway treasures in their home studio while Jack was a baby and another album of standards with Gracie. Rachel was itching to get back to the Great White Way though, and Finn had been supportive of her wishes to pursue acting again. Rachel was quickly offered a few plum offers before she finally decided on a new musical version of "Breakfast at Tiffany's." It was a coveted starring role that had been eyed by some of the biggest talents in both New York and Hollywood. The show ended up being even bigger than "Funny Girl."

The life the two of them had built in New York was a far cry from the boring lives they'd left behind in Lima. They stayed in touch with their families and a few others from high school, but it had been virtual radio silence for a lot of them. They were busy in New York, which meant her fathers usually ended up flying into the city to see them or they'd head down to D.C. to catch up with the Hummels. They saw Kurt and Blaine often enough since they only lived a few blocks away, and Rachel had mentioned that she'd had lunch with Mercedes last week when she was in LA. Sometimes he texted Sam when he'd see his friend on TV or would type out a quick email to Quinn when he came across one of her pieces in a magazine.

Finn didn't really miss most of his old friends, though. The only one he ever really wondered about was Puck. He knew that he had joined the Army and had run into his sister once when he'd been back in Lima for the holidays. She had been rather vague but seemed proud when she said he was still in the military. She hadn't mentioned where Puck was living now and Finn hadn't thought to ask. Gracie had started crying and her phone had rang and the conversation had just sort of faded away with no real resolution of any kind.

There had been a time when he couldn't have imagined not knowing where Noah Puckerman was at any given moment. They had been so entwined as kids, Puck always staying at Finn's for sleepovers after Little League games or Finn turning up on Saturday mornings for the amazing potato pancakes that Puck's mom made. Time had changed all of that. There was no big falling out, no real reason they lost touch; it was just the way things had turned out. Puck had already been gone when Finn and Rachel had gotten back from the Caribbean, and Mrs. Puckerman hadn't had a forwarding address yet when they left for New York City. He tried to call her once after they had gotten settled in Manhattan but she had changed her number by then.

The thing was that Finn knew Puck would find a way to find him if he wanted. He also knew that Finn had a way of disengaging when he needed to put some space between himself and a situation. Finn knew that if his friend was going to dedicate his life to the military, he needed to put everything he had into it. Keeping tabs on life in Lima would deter part of his focus and make him missing things that he couldn't get back. It might seem cold to the outsider but Finn got it. It was the only way that Puck could make sure that he never missed home.

And yet, when the call came on that rainy Tuesday in New York, Puck was the first person that Finn thought to call. He was home with a sick Gracie that day and had just gotten her settled when his phone had rang from the other room. Rachel was away on tour for two weeks, doing a series of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" performances on the West Coast for the show's investors. Finn was home holding down the fort until she got back the next week.

He sat stoically for a long time after he'd hung up. The words hadn't sunken. The series of syllables didn't seem to have any real meaning. He immediately thought of all the other things he should be doing, but instead, he stayed there watching the rain fall down for nearly an hour. Jack was still at school, Gracie was still asleep, the phone was still ringing, but Finn forgot all about it. He only watched the drops crawling down the huge windows in their master bedroom and remembered the time he'd pushed Puck into a mud puddle in second grade. His mom had been so pissed when he had ruined his new tennis shoes.

The phone was still ringing nonstop when he pulled out his tablet and ran a quick search. A few minutes later, he was silencing another call while he dialed the numbers he had scrawled down on the back of a fashion magazine Rachel had left lying around. He was sitting at the foot of Gracie's bed just watching her sleep, her little chest rising and falling in time with her tiny breaths. Her whole world was about to be sent spinning off its axis, so Finn prayed that she would stay asleep for as long as she could.

"Lieutenant Colonel Puckerman," a voice barked out professionally.

"Puck," Finn said quietly. It was then and only then that he finally lost it. "Puck…I…Rachel…there was a crash…New York…dead…I don't know…the kids…" He stopped rambling long enough to take a deep breath. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Finn, man, hold on," Puck said as he killed the jeep's engine on the other side of the country. He was pretty sure he knew what Finn was trying to tell him. Puck had delivered the news often enough in his own career that he knew all the signs. He gripped the leather of the steering wheel tightly until his knuckles turned white. Flashes of old memories washed over him for a moment before he pushed them down again. "Finn, are you trying to tell me…"

Finn's sobs filled his ear for a long minute. He could tell that his old friend was trying to suppress them behind a clamped mouth. Someone else must be around. "She was flying back because Gracie was sick," he managed between the tears. "She was going to surprise us. She's been on tour for two weeks and Gracie got the chicken pox. Rach just wanted to come home to be with our baby girl."

Rachel and Finn have a daughter, Puck thought, when did that happen? He knew that he had missed out on a lot in his friends' lives. "Finn, I need you to listen to me, man," Puck said patiently. His voice was even but commanding. He knew how to do this part all too well. "Can you tell me what happened to Rachel? Is she...?"

"There was an accident somewhere over the Sierra Nevada range," Finn managed. "There were no survivors."

Puck had known from the very beginning of the conversation but he needed to hear Finn actually say it before he would believe it was real. Somehow he knew that Finn needed to tell him before he would accept that it was real himself. It was like something clicked then and Finn chuckled humorlessly. "I'm not even sure why I called you first. I should call my mom. Her fathers have probably tried calling me and Kurt. Oh, God, Kurt. Why did I call you first?"

"I don't know, man."

"Me neither," Finn sighed as he noticed Gracie starting to stir. "I need to go, I need to get Jack."

"Jack?" Puck asked.

"Rachel and I have a son," Finn said before he ended the call and gathered his little girl into his arms.