A/N: To my fans and readers, I am sincerely sorry for the absence. I have realized that this story has not been updated in… almost 2 years. Completely unacceptable! I will never forgive myself for this. I am finishing my last undergrad year at college, and let's just say the past few years have been intense. This is no excuse, but believe me, I am sorry.

But the show must go on right? And on it will go…

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or its characters, only the DVDs and music that I bought… and even then, I truly don't own them.

Chapter Fifteen: Gone

Noah rolled over in his sleep, throwing an arm over the sleeping figure next to him. She felt soft and… squishy. Too squishy. Something was not right. He cracked one eye open and saw that his arm had in fact landed on the pillow beside him. Still groggy from sleep, he slowly pushed himself up and looked around.

"Rachel?"

Sunlight was streaming through the cracks of the blinds and as Noah moved to continue to look for Rachel, a beam of light fell in his eyes.

"Sonofabitch." He muttered, untangling himself from the bed sheets. It was only then that he was aware of his lack of clothing. Noah closed his eyes in an effort to awake himself. 'That's right…' he thought to himself. Noah had briefly forgotten the events of the night before, but as Quinn's son's face came into his mind, he jolted out of bed.

Rachel had been pretty upset last night. Upset enough to retreat in her room, leaving the party early and even started packing her bags. Her bags… Noah wildly looked around for Rachel's luggage in the room.

It was gone.

Noah scrambled around the room, gathering his clothes and throwing them on haphazardly. He looked in the small bathroom and couldn't help but feel a large lump settle in his stomach when he didn't see her personal belongings on the bathroom counter. He threw the bedroom door open and looked up and down the hallway. He hadn't even bothered to check the time, but from the looks of the house the party was definitely over and it was early in the morning. He wandered into the living room where Kurt, Sarah and Jack were all sitting, drinking coffee. Noah cleared his throat and all three looked up at him. The looks on their faces only hardened the ever-growing lump in his stomach.

"Kurt…"

"Noah, good morning!" Kurt interrupted, almost a too cheerful way. "We are just having some coffee, would you care to join us?"

"Where's Rachel?" Noah asked, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"Um… she's out." Kurt replied. "Coffee?"

"Out where?"

"Just… out. Rebecca is still sleeping. Those kids stayed up quite late."

"Oh… I…" Noah started, feeling slightly guilty now that he wasn't worried about his own daughter and knew that he had left her in Kurt's care while trying to console Rachel.

"Well actually," Sarah said, "I took care of her, but it was no trouble at all. What's another kid?" She laughed and her husband gave her a "please no" look.

"Wow, thank you. I'm sorry about that. I just went to see how she was doing and we… uh…" Noah didn't know how to finish that sentence.

Kurt merely smiled and nodded. "I understand. We all did. Shortly after your argument… yes we heard," Kurt said as Noah gave him a troubled look, "Well, needless to say Quinn and Finn's presence sucked the life out of the party. They came in to give their greetings, but I suppose the lack of Rachel and yourself dulled their moment of presence and they left. After that, well everyone else left. Talk about a party…" He finished sarcastically. "Never has any one of my parties been as shameful as that. I suppose the New Year's party will have to be over the top."

Noah smiled meekly and moved around to sit down on the sofa. "Well, I'm sorry about all that. It all just… got out of control. But, Kurt… you said Rachel was out. But her luggage is gone. Where is she?"

Kurt didn't meet his gaze and simply stared into his coffee mug as he began, "Rachel woke up early this morning. She came in my room at about 3am, crying. I couldn't really get out what she was saying, but I could understand from her was that she wanted to go home. To New York." When Noah opened his mouth, Kurt held up a hand to stop him from speaking and continued, "She said she had booked a flight at 6 am and asked me to drive her to the airport. I got back about 20 minutes ago. All she said was for me to tell you that she is sorry."

"Sorry?" Noah repeated dumbly.

Kurt nodded and looked at the former football player. He noticed how tired he looked just then, as if all the life and happiness was sucked from his body. Kurt could see Noah's heart breaking right before his eyes. "She also said that she'll always love you, but she doesn't feel like she belongs here anymore. Noah, I'm so sorry."

"Sorry." Noah repeated again. He stood up and ran his hand over his mohawk. "Sorry. Yeah, well… me too." And with that Noah got off the couch and without a word went to the basement, where he believed Rebecca was sleeping. Her dark curls fanned out across the pillow gave her away and he stepped quietly over to her. Noah bent down and swept the hair off her face. Rebecca stirred. "Hey Bug. It's time to go home now okay?"

Rebecca groaned and rolled over in her sleep. Noah sighed, hanging his head. A million thoughts and emotions were raging through his body. He just wanted to hit something or yell or cry or do all three. He couldn't believe her! He couldn't believe that she would just leave without saying goodbye to him. What did she have to be so god damn selfish! And what the hell did she mean when she said she didn't belong here. Of course she does. 'But…' whispers a small voice in the back of his mind. 'Does she really? She is a Broadway star after all.' He felt his eyes grow wet and a burning sensation run down his throat. He'd be damned if he cried in front of Rebecca. He clenched his jaws for a few moments to let the feeling pass and then pulled back the covers, snaked his arms under and around Rebecca's sleeping form and lifted her up.

He carried her up the stairs and out into the hallway, where Kurt helped him out the door, carrying their coats. Once Noah got Rebecca in her car seat, he threw her coat over her legs and looked back to Kurt.

"Noah… is there anything I can do?"

Noah just shook his head. "Thanks for the party." And with that, he grabbed his coat from Kurt, got into his truck and drove home. Noah glanced in the review mirror and could have sworn he said Kurt wipe his face, as if he was crying.

But Noah didn't care. Because he was the one who felt like crying, as if his soul had been ripped into thousands of unrecognizable shards of what use to be Noah Puckerman.

A/N: I know it's short! But I thought it would be better to give you something! Again, review! What are your thoughts?