So here's the end. Thanks for reading and reviewing, friends. Enjoy!

Rachel slowly opened her eyes. Her cheek was rested on a patch of scarred, naked chest.

It hadn't been a dream. A smile crossed her lips even as she realised that they needed to actually talk. There hadn't been any talking last night. There had been a lot of screaming and some seriously dirty words mumbled against skin, but no resolution. His arm pulled her closer to his warm chest and he mumbled her name softly in his sleep.

She lifted her head and examined the scar of his chest. It was unmistakably a healed bullet wound and it was about two centimeters shy of his heart. It was a new scar. Her head spun as she realised he'd almost died during his second tour. He'd left and almost died. And rationally she knew that it wasn't her fault, not the almost dying bit anyways but she couldn't seem to catch her breath. Her tension roused him from sleep and his eyes widened before scrambling up and pushing her to place her head between her knees. His fingers ran through her hair, his voice calmly whispering in her ear and her vision started to clear. Tears fell as she calmed down and he pulled her back against his chest when her breathing was under control.

"I'm going to try not to take that personally." He joked, but his voice was tight. Of course he thought she was freaking out about what they'd done. She'd told him mere days before that she regretted him. She really sucked.

She turned in his arms and straddled his covered hips. Her lips raised to meet his own in a chaste kiss before she rested her forehead against his. This was probably as good a time as any. They were both naked and she had him right where he needed to be.

"You got shot." She whispered finally.

He tensed in her arms and she waited until he relaxed a bit. "It happens."

She closed her eyes, refusing to move even an inch away from him but unable to return his gaze at the moment. Her fingers traced over the scar tissue. "Yes, but you could have died."

He was silent for a moment. "Yeah, I almost did."

His honesty hurt her in a way she couldn't quite explain. There was no denial. He had almost died. Her arms went around his shoulders and she buried her face against his neck. "You would have died thinking I didn't love you anymore."

He was tense. So very tense. He didn't say anything but one hand hesitantly rubbed against her lower back.

"If you hadn't made it-" She paused and breathed him in deeply until her lungs protested. "I wouldn't have survived it. It was hard enough living without you all these years but-"

"I didn't die." His tone was firm and in it she heard the warning signs of imminent withdrawal.

She cupped his face and stared into his eyes. "Please don't disappear on me. I know it's my own fault that you do it. I know I was always pushing you too far but we can't fix anything if you do it."

His lips pressed together into a line and she realised that he wasn't sure they could fix anything anyways. She blinked.

"I have spent the last five years missing you. I've overanalyzed every word and every action and I always come to the same conclusion."

He quirked an eyebrow.

"We weren't ready for this. I was too young and impatient and selfish. And you needed more from me, more than I wanted to give, more than I was able to give. And you gave up on me and I don't blame you for it but you did. You just did. We just weren't ready. But that doesn't changed the fact that I loved you then and I love you now." She stared at him, willing him to believe her.

He stared back for a moment before placing his hands on her hips and softly placing her on the bed beside him. "I just." He shook his head. "I just need a minute."

She watched him walk out of the room and for a moment she wondered if he planned on coming back. She stared at the clock and exactly 237 seconds later he returned. He had found his boxers but she took hope in the fact that he wasn't fully dressed and therefore he wasn't just coming back to say goodbye. He paced thoughtfully at the foot of the bed and she watched him from where she knelt covered in a sheet.

"You destroyed me." He told her finally. He kept pacing. "I gave you everything I could and you just fucking ruined me. I reenlisted and even they couldn't send me far enough away from that apartment." He scrubbed a hand over his eyes. "I thought I could forgive you for anything, absolutely anything."

His eyes had hardened and she finished his thought for him. "But then I ripped them up."

He exhaled shakily and nodded without looking at her. "I always thought your use of metaphors were a bit crazy in high school but fuck, that one particularly hurt. That one burned. That one almost killed me."

She wiped at a stray tear as it fell. "I spent days on that floor taping them back together." She choked on a sob as he gazed up at her with wide, surprised eyes. "Santana and Quinn tried to get me out of the apartment for a while and then they tried to help me with it. But I couldn't let them. I had f-fucked everything up and I was the one who'd made the mess so I stayed there until all of them were whole again. But the problem was that no matter how hard I tried to fix them, I couldn't fix us. I couldn't unbreak my heart and I couldn't heal yours."

Puck stood transfixed as Rachel shed light on the days following their breakup. Her fingers were fisted in the sheet that barely covered her naked body and her face was wet with tears.

"I couldn't unbreak my heart and I couldn't heal yours."

"You taped them back together?" She nodded and he stumbled back to lean against the wall behind him. "All of them?"

"It was the least I could do. It was the only thing I had left of you, from you." She ran a shaky hand through her hair. "I didn't perform for weeks. I just sat on the floor in the living room and read the lovely things that you'd wrote to me and cried." She sniffled and gave him a pathetic smile. "I lived there for two years after you left. I just couldn't leave. I kept hoping you'd come back even though I knew you wouldn't, that you couldn't. I took away that option when I ripped those letters. You were gone even before you walked away." She chuckled dully through her tears. "I lost the security deposit because I couldn't make myself fix the wall. It was a reminder everyday of what I'd done and that I needed to be better, kinder and less selfish. I am so sorry. Even if you never forgive me, I need you to know how sorry I am."

He stared at her as his thoughts churned. Finally, his eyes left hers and wandered around the room for the first time. His feet stumbled forwards when he saw a familiar box resting on the top of her closet. He pulled the box down and opened it with shaking hands. He felt tears spill from the corners of his eyes as he picked up a shabby, tearstained, taped together letter. His mouth opened in surprise as the melody came flooding back. The words quietly escaped him and the sound of her muffled sobs blended with his song.

When your soul finds the soul it was waiting for
When someone walks into your heart through an open door
When your hand finds the hand it was meant to hold
Don't let go
Someone comes into your world
Suddenly your world has changed forever

No there's no one else's eyes
That could see into me
No one else's arms can lift
Lift me up so high
Your love lifts me out of time
And you know my heart by heart

When you're one with the one you were meant to be find
Everything falls in place, all the stars align
When you're touched by the cloud that has touched your soul
Don't let go
Someone comes into your life
It's like they've been in your life forever

No there's no one else's eyes
That could see into me
No one else's arms can lift
Lift me up so high
Your love lifts me out of time
And you know my heart by heart

So now we've found our way to find each other
So now I found my way, to you

No there's no one else's eyes
That could see into me

No there's no one else's eyes
That could see into me
No one else's arms can lift
Lift me up so high
Your love lifts me out of time
And you know my heart by heart

And you know my heart by heart
And you know my heart by heart
And you know my heart by heart

His voice trailed off as he picked up another letter. It was clear that these papers had been held often over the years. He felt the knot inside his chest, somewhere in the vicinity of his heart, loosen just a bit. He read the words to the song in his hand quietly.

There comes a time, a time in everyone's life
Where nothing seems to go your way
Where nothing seems to turn out right
There may come a time, you just can't seem to find your place
For every door you open, seems like you get two slammed in your face
That's when you need someone, someone that you can call.
And when all your faith is gone
Feels like you can't go on
Let it be me
Let it be me
If it's a friend that you need
Let it be me
Let it be me

"I stopped writing you know." He told her after reading some of the other pages.

She was silent and he finally turned to face her. Her face was red and her eyes were filled with remorse. The sight caused the strangest mix of pain and relief. She said nothing.

"It's not that I didn't have inspiration. I had enough rage and hurt to fill a thousand pages." That was the truth. He placed the box safely back in her closet. "The problem was that no matter how hurt I was, no matter how much I hated you sometimes, I just couldn't write badly about you."

Her brown eyes filled with hope and he cracked a half-smile. "Because I never hated you as much as I love you."

Bed-sheet forgotten, she scrambled up to her knees. "Love?" Her eyes were wide and she was just so fucking beautiful. "As in present tense?"

She burst into tears as the first real smile in five years lit up his face. He crossed the room and pulled her into his arms. "Past, present and future, Baby." His lips met hers hungrily and for the first time in a long time he believed in happy endings.

Life together wasn't perfect. They both still had wicked tempers and they were both still deeply flawed. Rachel still struggled to control her feelings when Noah talked about the wars he'd fought in and he still struggled with being so honest with her. She was still sometimes selfish and he was still tempted to disengage but they'd learned from past mistakes.

Their friends had been thrilled when they'd come home to New York. Puckleberry was a go and the group was back together again. Sebastian had become a permanent fixture within the group. It turned out he too had lived in New York all along. Quinn and Sam were married nine months later, neither was interested in wasting any more time together.

And when that twenty year reunion came around they all stayed in New York. The only ones worth seeing were a part of the family they'd built there together.

I hope you liked it. The songs used were "Heart by heart" by Demi Lovato and "Let it be me" by Ray Lamontagne. It may have felt a little too quick, but for me the problem was always those letters. I think the two of them said it all. Thanks for reading!