A/N: My first Glee fic. The thing is, I ship FR more than PR, but I love them both. And Puck is fun to write. That said, this is all Puck's POV, so there's some cursing and whatnot. Just a warning.

Post-Sectionals. That's all you need to know. Enjoy!

----

The day the rumors really start at school, Puck walks the halls with his usual strut, because if people want to talk about him like he's some kind of dick, then fuck them. He is, and everyone's known it all along. It shouldn't be a surprise.

He just really hates that he's the only one being painted in a bad light. Maybe people are afraid of Quinn, or maybe they don't want to stress her out or whatever, since she's knocked up, but he thinks it's kind of a raw deal that he's the only one in the wrong here.

And sure, he screwed over his best friend, but if Finn wasn't going to take care of locking that whole situation with Quinn down, then someone had to do it. It's not like he had to talk her into it. Puck's pretty sure it was her climbing onto his lap and pulling his shirt off that night. What was he supposed to do? Stop her? No way. Quinn's hot. Maybe not so much now that she's got that whole stomach thing going on. Actually, that's not really true. He still thinks she's gorgeous, and he won't say it to anyone (he has a reputation, sort of, to maintain) but something about her carrying his baby makes her kind of beautiful to him.

They don't have glee practice that day, since Mr. Schue has a meeting or something, and when Puck's on his way to his truck after school, one of the Cheerios calls him a deadbeat. He clenches his fist, because why are those girls such bitches? But he keeps walking, because he knows that if he snaps and says something to this chick, it'll just go around the school, and while the whole student body is already talking about him, he doesn't need to add to it.

He's halfway home when Crazy Bitch comes on the radio, and he turns it up real loud, because he hasn't heard the song in forever and it actually kind of fits his mood. And maybe it's the song title, or the way she looked at him the day everyone found out, or the fact that she was the only person all day to talk to him like he was almost kind of normal, he does a u-turn (the tires squeal, and it's awesome) and drives towards Rachel's house.

Finn's car is in the driveway.

Puck drives past, hoping that no one sees him through the windows.

----

In rehearsals, Finn and Rachel start doing more hand holding and eye fucking than normal, since no one has to worry about him having a girlfriend or anything, and Puck rolls his eyes as he does his dance steps. He starts singing a little louder, because Rachel always glares at him (he's throwing off the 'dynamic' or something) and she's kind of hot when she's all pissed off like that.

He walks into the choir room one day, and Finn is tickling Rachel, and Puck feels his blood start to boil. He used to get her laughing and squealing like that. She bats at Finn's hands and kicks her legs, and seriously? They look retarded. Puck thinks they should just do it already, because maybe then they'd get awkward around one another and he wouldn't have to put up with this shit.

But then he thinks of someone else's hands creeping up her skirt, and he doesn't think that's such a good plan anymore.

Finn freezes when Puck walks across the room and slumps into a chair, not saying a word to either of them.

"Hey Puck," Rachel says sweetly, though he knows she hates calling him by that nickname. He also knows that her calling him Noah was kind of their thing, and for whatever reason, he's glad she doesn't do it in front of Finn The Wonder Boy.

He sends her a smarmy smile (one that says "I don't want to be here") and a nod. Finn ignores him (he's almost getting used to it now) and goes back to talking quietly with Rachel.

She jumps up out of her seat when Mr. Schue walks in, and she starts jabbering on about some number she thinks they should do.

Puck doesn't hear a word she says, though, because her skirt flipped up when she stood, and he caught a glimpse of her white panties, so his mind is definitely in another place.

----

Quinn's pretty fucking confusing, and she blames it on the hormones, but he's sure it's got nothing to do with that. She's just messed up, really messed up, and so sometimes when she hugs him and cries against his chest in the middle of the hallway, all he can do is pat her back awkwardly until she's calm enough to tell him what's going on.

She's been living with Brittany since everything came out, and she hates it there, because Brittany's younger brother is a little perv, and Quinn just wants to go home, she tells him.

Maybe she doesn't want to be with him, and maybe she's a fucking nut case, 90 per cent of the time, but she's the mother of his baby, so he's going to do something about all this.

He's walking towards the door to the parking lot, and he brushes past Rachel on his way. He can hear her little footsteps behind him, and he rolls his eyes, because he knows he's about to get an earful from her about skipping practice.

"Puck!" she calls out, reaching for his arm. He glances at her hand on his elbow like it's the weirdest thing he's ever experienced. (Actually, he really likes her hands, but now's not the time to notice it.)

"Not now, Berry." She's got this pink lip gloss on that he thinks is pretty hot, and whatever Kurt's been teaching her about makeup is working for her. He hasn't really seen her close up lately...

"Where are you going? We have rehearsal," she says.

"I have shit to do. Believe it or not, some of us have lives outside of glee," he says scathingly. She blinks at him a few times, and that's all it takes for him to realize what a jerk he's being. "I just have something to take care of, okay?"

"What is it?"

He furrows his brow at her. Does she always have to be so nosey? "Nothing."

"You're contradicting yourself. By definition, if you've got things to do, the tasks can't be nothing. It's impossible."

"Oh my god, Berry. Just...Stop talking," he says in exhaustion. She puts her hand on her hip and cocks her brow, like she's not moving until he gives her an explanation. "Look, Quinn's all crazy and emotional and whatever, and she wants to go home. I'm gonna go see if I can talk some sense into her parents." She smiles. She actually smiles. It's a little unnerving. "What?"

"That's actually very sweet, Noah," she says softly.

Something about the way she says it makes him want to smile. And he might, just for a second, but then he puts back on his normal expression. "Yeah, well I just don't want her crying at me all the time. I gotta go. Tell everyone I'm sick or something."

He gives her a 'what the hell are you doing?' look when she doesn't move out of his way.

"I'm coming with you," Rachel announces, holding her head up like there's no arguing.

He mumbles a curse and looks away from her for a second. "Rachel."

"I'm good with parents. Great, actually. Parents love me. If you recall, I totally won over Artie's father last week when he watched our practice."

"This isn't really a team work kind of thing," he tells her.

Jesus, he can't take her to see the Fabray's. They'll eat her alive.

Or maybe the other way around.

Either way, it's a bad idea.

"Then I'll talk," she says, and she's already walking towards the door, so he can't really stop her.

Well, he could. But he doesn't, because he's actually almost happy (just almost) that he doesn't have to do this alone.

She's quiet the entire drive to Quinn's neighourhood, and it amazes him a little bit, because he's pretty sure she's never, ever not talked for so long.

It's totally freaking him out.

"Okay, what?" he asks as they turn onto Quinn's street.

"Hmm?" She turns to him, and he's glancing at her from the corner of his eye. "Just coming up with a plan of attack. I really do think it's better if I do the talking. You're emotionally involved, and I'm just a concerned third party. I'm your...I'm Quinn's friend," she says, remembering his words, he assumes. "And, no offense, but I speak more clearly than you do. It's fine, since you're a teenaged boy, but my vocabulary is..."

"Okay. Whatever. Just...that's fine."

He doesn't know if it is, not really, but she might be making sense. He kind of tuned her out for a minute, but maybe she's right.

And she is pretty good with parents. Artie's dad practically wanted to adopt her.

His hands are in his pockets as she rings the bell, and she swats at his wrist and hisses at him to straighten up, because first impressions are important. He's met the Fabray's before, and he's about to say so when the door swings open and there stands Mrs. Fabray, in a green dress that's probably not really meant for sitting around the house in.

Rachel starts talking immediately, explaining who she is and asking if they can come in. As usual, her request is granted, simply because she stuns people into submission with her long-windedness. Puck usually finds it a bit annoying, but he's thankful for it now. So they step inside, and Mr. Fabray meets them in the living room. Puck is usually pretty confident, but this man terrifies him. Rachel, however, is like a drill sergeant. She stands across from the Fabrays, while Puck sits on the sofa to her right, and she launches into her speech. He hears the words, but they don't really register with him, because he's too busy trying to gauge the reactions of the people across from him. They're glancing at him every so often, in a way that leads him to believe that they know all about the situation, that he's the father and not Finn.

Rachel's speech includes hand gestures and rhetorical questions, and Puck nearly laughs when she asks, "wouldn't you want your daughter to love her child unconditionally? Perhaps you should do the same."

She's a fucking badass.

They're at the house for nearly an hour, and there's actually a conversation taking place. By the end of it, he's adding in his two cents here or there, answering questions, and he thinks Mrs. Fabray might actually smile when Puck promises that whatever Quinn wants is fine with him, that he won't pressure her into anything and he just wants her to make the decision that's best for her.

The whole encounter ends with Mrs. Fabray crying and hugging Rachel, then Puck, and Mr. Fabray shaking Puck's hand and telling Rachel she's a spitfire. She smiles like it's a compliment or something.

They're walking out the door when they hear Mrs. Fabray tearfully talking to Quinn on the phone.

He gets into his truck and just sits there in the driveway for a second, because holy shit, did that actually just work?

"Fuck," he mutters. He turns to Rachel, and while she looks confident, sitting there with her posture straight and everything, she's toying kind of nervously with the bottom of her skirt. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you were awesome."

She laughs and looks at him. "How would I take that the wrong way?"

He rolls his eyes and turns the key. "Don't let it go to your head or anything."

He can still see her smiling (it's a little hard to ignore) as he backs out of the driveway. She toys with the radio, and he sighs, because he hates that, and the one time he ever drove her somewhere (when they were...dating or whatever, and he drove her home from school) he told her he hated it. She settles on some soft-rock station, and she starts singing along, and he'd really love to tell her to put it back, but she sounds kind of nice, singing along with whatever chick singer is coming through the speakers.

That doesn't have to mean anything, she's just a really good singer, and everyone knows that. It's a fact. He doesn't have to tell her so, because everyone else does, so she already knows it anyway.

The song ends and a commercial comes on, and he switches the station back to his favourite. Somebody To Love comes on, and they look at one another, both smiling, because they both love this song (and talked about it before, when they were...dating or whatever). She starts singing along, and he's tapping his hand on the steering wheel, and he's pretty sure she expects him to sing too, but that's not what he does.

"Thanks," he says quietly. He turns down the radio and glances over at her. She's looking to her lap again. He thinks she's actually really cute when she's not acting crazy. "For helping me, I mean."

"It's for the good of the group. Quinn will be happier, and you won't be worrying."

"Rachel, you did it to help me," he says. He's not an idiot, and he's not going to let her get away with brushing it off.

There's a little voice in the back of his head that's wondering what Finn would say about her blowing off practice to spend time with him.

And then it really hits him.

She skipped glee practice for him. A whole hour and a half of playing PG-13-Grabass with Finn.

"You did, didn't you?" he asks. They're stopped at a red light, and he turns to look at her. She's looking straight ahead. "Berry."

"Fine!" she cries. He's never seen her so unglued, but it only lasts a second before she tucks her hair behind her ear and composes herself. "I helped you because I don't like seeing you upset."

The light changes to green, but he's too busy staring at her (she really is kind of hot) and trying to figure out who the fuck she even is, and he doesn't notice until the driver behind him honks. He starts paying attention, and when the guy behind him passes him, Puck gives him the finger for good measure.

They're driving into her neighbourhood, and her silence is freaking him the hell out. He doesn't know if she's embarrassed or whatever, but she really shouldn't be. So she...cares about him, or whatever. There's nothing wrong with that. Except what the fuck is going on with her and Finn?

"What about your boyfriend?" he asks, hearing the bitterness in his own voice.

"I don't have a boyfriend," she says without skipping a beat. Apparently she didn't hear the bitterness.

"What about Finn?"

"Finn is not my boyfriend," she says, turning towards him.

"Right," he mumbles. He laughs a little bit, because even she can't be this clueless. "He's not."

"He isn't. Finn and I...we share a connection. On stage, we're...we just work together," she says, somewhat defensively.

"And off stage?" he finds himself asking, stealing a glance at her.

"He just broke up with his girlfriend," she admits quietly.

He peers at her again before he turns left onto her street, and he can't tell if she's upset because Finn isn't ready to date her, or if she's just really uncomfortable having this conversation with him. He hopes it's the second.

Actually, he's pretty fucking confused, because he thought he wanted to be with Quinn, but just being her friend is working out really well, because he doesn't have to constantly keep proving himself to her, and they actually have fun sometimes when they're out shopping for cribs and shit. They still don't know what they're going to do, as far as keeping the baby or putting it up for adoption, but he's sure that now her parents will help her (them) with that decision. It's been good, these last couple weeks, just being friends with her, nothing more.

And as much as it kills him to admit it, even to himself, he's missed Rachel a little bit. That week they were...dating or whatever was kind of fun. She's bat shit crazy, for sure, but she's also sweet and nice, and, okay, she is hot as hell. She has absolutely no idea just how hot she is (how hot he thinks she is) but it makes him a little crazy. And actually, when he sees her sometimes, he has to ignore her because if he doesn't, he'll do something stupid like tell her how hot he thinks she is.

And no matter how much he likes to pretend, it's not unbearable to hang out with her. It's actually nice. Fun, almost.

Of course, it was more fun when they were making out. But this is good too.

But if she's hung up on Finn, he can't really do anything about it, and maybe right now all Puck needs is to just be friends with girls, not try to sleep with them. He might try that.

They pull into her driveway just after her dad (he doesn't know which one, but he doesn't really care). He's getting a glare from the guy, and he doesn't care about that either. Rachel grabs the strap of her bag and reaches for the door handle, but she stops when he says, "Hey."

"Yes?" she asks.

"You're...we're friends," he admits, and fuck, he sounds like such a girl.

"Pardon me?" She turns to him a little, and he tries not to stare at her thigh where her skirt has ridden up.

"Before, you...you said Quinn is your friend, not me, and...that's not...We're friends, okay?" he says.

"But you said..."

"I know what I said. I..." He stops, takes a deep breath, and when he looks at her, she's trying not to smile. She's making fun of him. "I lied."

She leans over, and he thinks she's going to kiss him or something, which would be weird, since her dad is watching, but awesome because he really likes (or liked) kissing her.

Instead she just rests her hand on his shoulder and says, "I know," like it's some kind of big secret or something.

She gets out of his truck and walks over to hug her dad, and Puck's still sitting in her driveway when she gets to the door, turns around and smiles at him.

----

The next day, he's minding his own business, standing in the hall and trying to decide whether or not he wants to go to English class, when he finds himself being pushed back against his locker. There's an arm across his chest and a piece of metal sticking into his back.

Finn. Great.

He pushes Finn away and straightens out his shirt. "What the fuck, dude?"

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this is about a girl. And Puck knows Finn has pretty much, more or less, gotten over the whole Quinn thing.

"What'd you do yesterday?" Finn asks.

"None of your damn business," Puck says. He misses his best friend, but he doesn't want to put up with lame accusations.

Besides, he certainly didn't force Rachel into anything anyway. She wanted to go with him, practically insisted upon it, so he's not going to let Finn try to beat the shit out of him for it. And try is the operative, there. Finn may be 11 feet tall, but Puck is stacked. Their last fight wasn't fair, since Finn totally sucker punched him. And okay, Puck can admit that he maybe deserved a punch or two for that.

But not for this.

"Stay away from her," Finn says, but Puck can tell that he doesn't really want to say the words, or even believe that he should be saying them.

"If Rachel wants to spend time with me, there's nothing you can do about it," Puck says rationally. Finn sets his jaw. "And we were just helping Quinn."

He figures he can be honest. After all, this is the first Finn has even said two words to him in weeks, and he thinks that if he can get the guy to at least hear him out, they might be be to be friends again or something.

But Finn's just standing there like some kind of dope, so Puck rolls his eyes dramatically (maybe he has picked up a couple things from Rachel after all). "We went and talked to Quinn's parents, okay? So she could move home." Still looks like a dope. "That's why she's not here today. She's moving her things. So...fucking relax, dude. Rachel just helped me with the Fabrays."

Finn doesn't say anything, but he smiles, just a little bit, before he walks away.

Puck slams his locker door closed as hard as he can when he sees Finn meet Rachel at her locker and offer to carry her books for her. She smiles and tucks her hair behind her ear, then she's laughing at something Finn says, and Puck fucking hates that guy sometimes.

He really doesn't know why he cares so much.

----

Quinn decides to keep the baby, and when she tells Puck, it's in the choir room, and she's bawling, and she clutches his tee shirt and says that she hopes he doesn't mind. Really? He's actually kind of stoked. He's not a deadbeat, and he's going to prove it. He wants to take care of his daughter. His daughter. He rubs Quinn's back and tells her he's really happy, and that he'll do whatever he has to do to help her, and she smiles when she pulls away. Her makeup is destroyed, and if he were more of a jerk, he'd make fun of her for it, but he can't bring himself to do it.

Rachel walks in and sees what's going on, and Quinn wipes her eyes and tries to smile.

Rachel is the first person who hears the news.

Puck likes that she is.

----

"I'm proud of you," she says quietly that day after practice, when he's putting away his guitar and everyone else has already left.

"Yeah?" he asks skeptically. She smiles and nods. "Thanks, Berry."

"I just hope the baby gets Quinn's looks," she teases, walking backwards towards the door.

He picks up his guitar case, squints at Rachel, and starts walking towards her. "Whatever. You know I'm hot." Her cheeks go so red that he actually laughs at her, and when she bites her lip, he's almost positive he should win a fucking medal for not just grabbing her. "C'mon. I'll drive you home."

She messes with his radio station again. He actually knows the words to the song that comes on. Rachel doesn't make fun of him for it. She harmonizes with him, and he thinks that it'd be kind of cool if they could sing together more often.

----

Puck and Quinn are walking down the hall together one day, and he's sort of half-listening to her talk about the nursery she and her mom are working on (seriously, how many shades of yellow are there?). He's happy she's so into it, and that she's sharing everything with him, really, but sometimes a guy just wants like, five minutes of quiet in the morning.

He sees Rachel standing by her locker, and he has to blink a few times. She's got on one of those little skirts, black, with a pair of heels (heels!). They're little ones, but still. She's wearing a dark purple cardigan over top of a v-neck camisole, and she looks fucking hot.

Apparently he's staring.

"Are you...?" Quinn asks, following his line of sight. Her hand flies to her mouth. "Oh my god!"

He glares at her. "Don't."

"Puck," she whispers, pulling him aside so they can stand and talk. "You were just checking out Rachel Berry!"

"Shut up," he warns her. But he's a little pissed that his back is to Rachel now and he can't see her anymore.

"I have to admit, she's not completely hideous," Quinn says, laughing a little.

He knows she's mostly joking, because she and Rachel have actually kind of become friends. He knows, because he just heard her tell him that Rachel went over to help pick out organic crib liners or something, and she stayed for dinner at the Fabrays'. The only reason he really listened was because he heard her name.

(But that doesn't mean anything.)

Quinn must pick up on the fact that he's still thinking about Rachel, and there must be some kind of weird expression on his face, because she starts looking genuinely surprised.

Then he realizes that they really haven't talked about what they are or what they might become, and he really hopes that she's not hurt or mad at him or something, because he's pretty sure she's on to him about this whole stupid Rachel thing. He doesn't even know what this whole stupid Rachel thing is, just that he likes hanging out with her sometimes, and he thinks about her a lot, like when he's working. Or singing. Or driving. Or trying to get to sleep. Or when he's in the shower (though a lot of the time he's thinking of her being there with him, so he can at least chalk that up to wanting to fuck her, which is totally normal, since he's a dude).

"You like her," Quinn whispers.

He sighs and shrugs his shoulders. It's not like he likes her, really, he just...

Fuck.

He likes her.

"The golden boy has her," Puck says. Sure enough, when he looks over his shoulder, Finn and Rachel are talking with a couple of the other glee kids. "What is it about that guy?"

Quinn laughs and shakes her head. "I'm wondering the same thing about her." He mumbles a curse, closes his yes, and the apology leaves his lips before he can stop it. She shrugs her shoulder. "We never would have worked anyway."

"You don't know that," he says, just because he always feels the need to defend himself, even if he doesn't know if he's being insulted.

"This is good. We're good like this," she tells him, and she's smiling because they both know it's the truth. She laughs and shakes her head, squeezes his shoulder a little. "You and Rachel."

She walks away, and when he turns around again, he catches Rachel's eye, and despite the smile she gives him, he says to himself, "There is no me and Rachel."

Then he blows of math class and goes to the weight room, because he's been thinking about feelings and shit way too much already today.

----

He catches up to her at lunch during a rare moment when Finn isn't glued to her damn side. She's at her locker, putting on lip gloss or something. Her back is to him, and he's checking her out as he approaches. Seriously, that little skirt barely covers her ass, and those heels are making her legs look killer.

He walks up behind her, gets close enough that he's almost brushing up against her, and their eyes meet in the mirror on her locker door. "Really, Berry? Heels?"

She spins around, completely oblivious (he's going to embarrass himself if he doesn't stop thinking of her in nothing but those heels) and smiles up at him. "Do you like them? I thought I'd try it, you know? I always wear flats, but I thought that maybe I should get used to heels. Stage performers often have to dance in them."

He laughs at her rambling. He's trying to be...okay, so he's not entirely sure. He supposes he was just trying to make her as crazy as she's making him. He just shakes his head and she's looking up at him with those big brown eyes, waiting for him to say something.

"Yeah," he says, looking her up and down. "I like them." She just blinks at him a few times, and he thinks she might be catching on to him or something. "See you in practice."

----

Quinn starts winking at him, not subtly at all, when they're all even in the same room together, and Puck knows that if she wasn't downright scary when he pisses her off (never on purpose, he swears) he'd tell her to stop acting like such a child about all this. Okay, so he never should have let her in on the secret (and it needs to stay a fucking secret, thanks) but he thought that Quinn, of all people, would be a little more discreet about it.

She asks him, one day when they're shopping (meaning, at the food court eating tacos) why he doesn't just have Rachel. If he wants her, he could have her, Quinn reasons. It's not that easy, and he knows it. He says Finn's name, and Quinn rolls her eyes. She tells him that if something was going to happen between Finn and Rachel, it would have already. It's been over a month since Sectionals, and despite the sickening amount of staring and flirting that goes on, Finn hasn't made a move.

Puck wonders if he should revoke his buddy's man card. That guy can't seem to lock anything down.

He ignores the fact that his own track record isn't that great, and he decides that he's going to start moving in. It's not like he has a best friend to lose or anything anyway.

----

He didn't expect it to be this easy.

Well, he didn't expect it to happen this way, which happens to be a pretty easy way.

They've been talking more and more, when Finn isn't around (seriously, that guy needs to get over all this shit). Puck drives her home sometimes. He asks her in the mornings before Finn can, and if he's feeling particularly bold after practice, he'll call her over when he's got his keys in his hand, just so Finn will know. What can he say? He's fed up with that whole situation. And she's started not really caring. At first, she'd look between the two of them, smile sweetly at Finn and say goodbye. Now she just waves and usually laughs at something Puck says to her. And yeah, Puck usually thinks of something before hand that'll make her laugh, but don't say anything about it, because he's just being a jerk to Finn. It's not because he likes to hear her laugh or anything.

One night, he convinces her (it doesn't take much) to grab a bite to eat, so they hit up this little restaurant that he doesn't hate, and she eats her salad and talks his ear off while he devours his burger. The difference now is that when she talks, he actually listens. (It's a surprise to him, too). She's going on about numbers she wants to do and things she wants to sing, and the thing is, he actually finds himself thinking that she'd sound good singing that particular Carrie Underwood song.

So when she belts the solo on So Small, and the rest of the group back them up with an awesome choral arrangement, he smiles at Rachel when they're paired up as part of their choreography, and he knows she thinks she hides it when she blushes, but she so doesn't.

And he doesn't mean to squeeze her hand, but he does.

She blows off one of Finn's basketball games to hang out with Puck and Quinn, and the three of them end up watching Garden State (he doesn't hate it, but he doesn't admit that) at Quinn's house while her parents drink vodka gimlets in the other room with a couple friends. Puck sits between the girls on the sofa, and when the baby kicks, Rachel moves quickly to sit on the floor in front of him so that she can reach over easily and feel the baby kick.

She's sitting on his feet, and her skirt has ridden up, so he knows that the only thing between his feet and her ass are her panties and his socks. He's glad he's sitting down.

When Quinn gets up to get more chips, Rachel sighs, gets back up onto the sofa and loops her arm through Puck's, and he doesn't push her away like he probably would have months ago.

"I can't wait to meet your daughter," she says.

Quinn comes back into the room and Rachel lets go of Puck's arm, but he's a million miles away.

He's going to have a daughter. And he's very aware of the fact that he wants Rachel to be a part of that little girl's life. Quinn might be head bitch in charge, but Rachel knows how to get her way, no matter what. Puck thinks that his little girl might need them all.

He drives Rachel home at the end of the night, with her humming the melody of that Imogen Heap song from the movie. He'd pay more attention if his mind wasn't somewhere else.

He drives past her house and doesn't even notice until Rachel says his name (twice) and puts her hand on his on the gearshift.

"Noah," she says again. He pulls over to the side of the road, and when he looks at her, she's visibly worried. "What's wrong?"

He doesn't want to, but he needs to be honest with her, to tell her what's on his mind. He thinks she'll help him, too, which is still a little foreign to him. He's not used to having people on his side, least of all whatever girl is into Finn at any given moment. But Puck is the one with her right now, not Finn. He thinks that has to count for something.

"You think I'll be a good dad?" he asks, quietly enough that he wants to punch himself, avoiding her eyes.

She tilts her head and smiles at him, lets out a little breath and nods her head. "Noah, I think you'll be a great dad."

He smirks back at her and she pulls her hand away. He does a u-turn and takes her back to her house, and when he pulls into the drive, she thanks him politely for the ride, like she always does.

"Yeah. And thanks," he says sincerely. "For...you know."

She smiles at him, leans over and kisses his cheek quickly. "You're welcome."

----

He walks into practice one day, and he's the last one there, which is really no surprise. What's weird is that Finn is sitting with Mike and Kurt, and Rachel is between Quinn and Santana. It's like the fucking poltergeist or something.

And the only open chair is next to Finn. But everyone's waiting for him to sit down, so he takes the chair, and he and Finn actually make eye contact and kind of almost smile at one another. They don't talk to one another, but at this point, anything is better than the way they've been. He sees Rachel and Quinn whispering to one another, and he can guess what they're saying.

Mr. Schue is on this crazy jazz kick, so all their numbers lately have been standards, which include some cool costumes (little flapper dresses for the girls and some cool fedoras for the guys). And he announces that they've got a gig performing during a local business' awards ceremony. It's nothing spectacular, but it's kind of a fancy evening, and they've got three numbers to perform. They've got two up-tempo numbers, so they need a ballad, and their homework is to find one for the group to sing.

For now, they run through what they've got. Feeling Good, which is pretty cool, if Puck may say so. Despite the fact that it's more of all that hand holding and shit between Rachel and Finn, the song is pretty cool, and they do it well. Then Rachel sings Fever, and it's so fucking hot and sexy and all that, that his pants are tight, and he's glad the guys are sitting at tables as part of the choreography.

She uses them as props, basically, and goes around the room, running her hand through their hair or over their shoulders as she sings the words like she fucking wrote them herself. She surprises everyone in the room when she sits herself down on Puck's lap, crosses her legs dramatically and runs her hand down the side of his face, plays with the collar of his shirt, and winks at him before getting up and moving on to Mike. (Hence, the pants tightness.)

And Quinn is giggling as she tries to sing her part, because she knows when Puck is flustered, and he clearly is.

The next day, he walks into the room with his sheet music in hand, an old standard that he knows won't be chosen as the one they sing, but he's actually making an effort by suggesting it. Finn didn't bring anything, but he's forgiven because he's Finn, and for whatever reason, people think the guy can do no wrong. Rachel has a laundry list of songs, and Mercedes has a few.

The one Quinn suggests is the clear winner. It's that Michael Bublé dude that all the girls love, and some chick with a raspy voice, and the song is actually pretty good. Mr. Schue taps his foot and sways his head as he listens to it, and Rachel's face is lit up, anxious to sing the song, and when it's over, Mr. Schue claps and tells them they'd better get to work.

"Rachel, Finn," he says, gesturing to the front of the room.

"Actually," Quinn interrupts, "I think Puck's voice would be great for this one."

Everyone in the room turns to her in surprise, no one more than Puck himself, because what the fuck is she talking about? Mr. Schue has this stupid smile on his face, and Finn's expression is blank. Rachel is just smiling at Puck, like maybe she agrees with Quinn or something.

So Puck shuffles to the front of the room with his sheet music, as though this is the biggest inconvenience of his life, but Rachel kind of licks her lips before she starts to sing, and he thinks that maybe it's not so bad.

He catches up with Quinn after practice, and she's laughing before he even says a word.

"What the hell?" he asks angrily. "I can't sing lead!"

"Oh, sure you can, Neil Diamond," she says, her brow arched and a smirk on her lips.

"That was different," he mumbles.

"Not really. You were singing for Rachel then, too," she points out, and she laughs when he glares at her.

"Why did you do this?"

She smiles all wide as she reaches for her car keys and heads for the door. "Can I just want my baby daddy to be happy?" she asks. (And no, even she can't keep a straight face.)

"Don't ever say that again," he warns her.

She's still laughing when she pulls out of the parking lot, and he's thinking that if she wasn't carrying his child, he'd never fucking talk to her again.

----

He and Rachel start practicing at her house, because it's not an easy song to sing, and he needs a little extra help. And he wants to hang out with her. She doesn't treat him like an idiot when he messes up the runs or forgets the key change for the twentieth time. And he hates how easy it is to sing the words when Rachel's standing in front of him, singing with her eyes closed, "you'll never find another love like mine."

And I mean, he doesn't love her or anything, but there's really no one like her. That's probably a good thing, or the world would like, implode or something. Girls like Rachel Berry are better as one of a kind items, and he's sure of that much.

"This is fun," she says during a break. She's sipping hot water with lemon as they stand in her kitchen. Her dads are in the living room watching CSI or something, and Puck has no idea how she doesn't drive them crazy with her constant singing. But then again, it's not like it's torture to listen to her or anything.

"Yeah."

"You know, your technique has developed by leaps and bounds since you first joined glee club," she points out.

"Yeah, sure," he says distractedly. He looks her straight in the eyes, and he's fucking tired of not knowing where she stands. "What's with you and Finn?"

She blinks at him once, twice, a third time, and when she opens her mouth, he's sure she's going to launch into some speech about how much she loves the guy or something. "Nothing," she says simply.

"Nothing."

"That's right," she insists.

"Because?" he asks expectantly.

She looks to the counter and shrugs her shoulder, toying with the handle on her mug. "Because...maybe I don't want to."

He doesn't push the issue any further, because frankly, that's a better response than he thought he was going to get.

And anyway, he thinks that maybe she just can't admit that she wants to be with him, not Finn.

----

The night of their performance, he's so nervous that he keeps his hands in his pockets, because they're shaking so bad that it's annoying the hell out of him. He's in a quiet corner of their dressing room, standing alone, warming up. He can see Rachel across the room, putting on her lip gloss as Brittany puts the finishing touches on curling Rachel's hair. She's wearing a red dress with this sexy fringe thing on it, keeping with the theme of this whole 20's jazz thing or whatever. All he knows is that she's got those little black heels on, and her hair is all curled, and her eyes are smokey.

"Nervous?" Puck looks over to see Finn standing next to him, straightening his tie. "Don't worry about it. You're gonna be great."

"Thanks," Puck says quietly.

They smile at one another and Finn walks away. Puck thinks they have their friendship back, just like that.

They start off with Fever, and Puck revels in the way Rachel runs her hands over his shoulders before she turns around a couple times and sits on his lap again. And the crowd fucking loves her. He doesn't know how she does it. He doesn't know how she isn't already off the market, actually.

He's really gotta get this shit under control before someone else does. If he misses out on his chance because he's afraid she's not ready (which is just fucked, because he's turned into one of those guys who cares about feelings and whatever), then he's an even bigger idiot than everyone else assumes.

When it comes time for him to sing his solo (which is still a pretty messed up thing, if you ask him) Rachel smiles at him and whispers in his ear for him to take a deep breath as the music starts. He decides that if he just looks at her, the nerves will go away, because he can't see that anyone's in the room, just her, and it's just like singing with her in her bedroom, pretending it's lame but actually loving every second.

He knows he nails it. Rachel's beaming at him with every run they sing, and her eyes are all sparkly when she slips her hand into his and sings to him (honestly, he's not exaggerating, she's singing to him). The thing is, he knows he could have any woman in this room right now if he wanted. They're literally swooning and stuff, and he knows it. But Rachel hits this note that makes him insane, seriously, and he pulls her by the hand towards him. She rests her hand on his chest, her eyes locked with his, and they sing the last lines of the song together.

The crowd loves it, claps and whatever, and he can see some of the glee members in his periphery. Rachel's smiling, glancing at the crowd then back at him.

And fuck it, he thinks.

He rests his hand on her cheek and kisses her before she can pull away or he can think twice about this ridiculous display of...whatever the hell he's trying to display. He's not really thinking about that, just about her lips, soft and warm against his, and the way she's squeezing his hand and kind of falling against him. The crowd seems to love this too. They're still clapping, oo-ing and aa-ing.

Puck pulls away after a few moments, just when Rachel nips his bottom lip a little bit, because they're in public, and he has to stop or he won't be able to stop.

And he's not imagining it.

She kissed him back.

They leave the stage and it's clear everyone's trying not to gossip and talk about this renewed coupling and "why isn't she kissing Finn?" Her hand is still in Puck's, and Quinn is annoyingly giddy. Kurt's jaw is dropped, and Finn looks kind of uncomfortable. Mr. Schue, it's obvious, doesn't know what to say, because that clearly wasn't part of the choreography, but it seemed to work out pretty well for their performance.

She's pulled away from him when the CEO of the company they're performing for comes to tell her how marvelous she is, and she acts like she doesn't know, smiling and saying thank you as the man gushes over her talent.

Puck's hands are shaking again.

"So...that was...You two kissing on stage," Finn says awkwardly.

Puck actually laughs. Fuck, did he actually just do that?

"Yeah."

"Just...be good to her," Finn says.

Puck nods, and that's that. They're square. Apologies made without having to be spoken. They both watch as Rachel starts talking with the rest of the girls, plus Kurt, and Puck can tell they're talking about the kiss.

He wants to talk about the kiss. Or just do it again. Yeah, probably just do it again.

They've all changed back into their street clothes and they're filing towards the door and into the parking lot, but Rachel hangs behind and approaches Puck nervously, and he has no idea how this is going to go down. Like, at all. She could either be alright with it, or she could tell him that he shouldn't have done it. He doesn't think it'll be that second one.

"So, you think I could get a ride home?" she asks quietly, looking to the floor.

She doesn't look impressed when he laughs at her. "I can probably manage," he says.

She toys with the strap of her bag as they walk towards his truck, and he thinks it might be some kind of a hint or something, so he takes it from her and carries it. She sends him a shy smile, and he doesn't know what the hell this girl has done to him, but he finds himself wishing she'd hold his hand or something. She doesn't, and that's okay, he supposes.

She's like, annoyingly quiet (Rachel Berry can be annoying, but it's never the quiet that makes her annoying) on the drive home, and he takes it slow, stopping at yellow lights (he never does) and not rolling through stop signs (he usually does). Rachel's hands are folded neatly in her lap, and when he steals glances at her, she's always looking straight ahead, as though they didn't just practically make out in a room full of people and they don't have anything to talk about.

So he figures that if she's not going to say something, it's because she's waiting for him to say something. Bitch.

"Look, I kissed you because I wanted to. And I have wanted to. But you and Finn have this stupid puppy love thing that practically makes me want to puke every time I witness it, and I thought...I honestly thought that you two were gonna hook up. But then you didn't, and when I asked you, you said you didn't want to," he says. She's staring at him now, but he can't read her expression, which is probably a good thing since he should be watching the road, not her. "So, yeah. I kissed you. Because you're hot. And because I...You're not terrible."

He's such an emotional cripple (Quinn's words) that he can't even just tell Rachel that he likes her.

"You're not terrible either, Noah," she says. When he steals a glance at her, she's smiling and trying not to laugh at him.

"Don't laugh!" he cries, but he's almost smiling too. "I don't talk about...feelings and shit, okay? I'm not...Kurt." She giggles and slides a little closer to him, and she pulls one of his hands off the steering wheel so she can lace their fingers together. "You know what I'm trying to say, though, right?"

"Not really," she lies. He gives her a look that would terrify basically anyone, but she just smiles back at him.

"Look, I like you, alright? I want you to be my girlfriend," he says, probably louder than he needs to.

"Okay, okay," she laughs. "No need to shout." He glares at her and she laughs again, then leans over and kisses his cheek. Not that there was any real doubt, but he's pretty sure this means that she wants to be his girlfriend too. "We should probably just work on how you express yourself."

They're stopped at a light, so he looks over at her and smirks. "I express myself just fine, as long as they're are no words involved."

He expects her to blush. She doesn't.

"Well, maybe we could work on that too," she says.

He grips the wheel so tight that his knuckles go white, and he really hopes that she's not all talk.

She laughs when they end up at the empty park near her house, and he cuts the engine, but leaves the radio on. He's moving toward her before she even realizes it, but she kisses him like she was expecting it.

He's parked crooked, the park is completely dark, not a soul around, and it's cliché and stupid, but they make out in his truck. He can tell she's not hung up on anyone but him, because when he slips his hand beneath the fabric of her skirt at her thigh, she doesn't push it away, and when she kisses him, she presses herself against him. Like, all the way against him. She's straddling him in the driver's seat, and she sneakily reclines the seat, which makes him fall backwards a little and her hips grind into his.

"Fuck," he mumbles. She pulls away, rests her hands on his chest as her hair falls in her face. He surprises himself by brushing it away, tucking it behind her ear more delicately than he does anything.

"Don't curse," she reprimands him. He rolls his eyes and pulls her towards him again, and she doesn't say anything when he grabs her ass beneath her skirt.

He doesn't get her home until 25 minutes after her curfew, but the lights are off and she says her dads are probably sleeping, because they know she's a 'good girl', and they know that after she performs, she can never really calm down. She mentioned something in passing about a party, which wasn't a lie, since Mercedes extended an open invitation to her home after their performance. Puck's pretty glad they skipped that.

As his truck idles in her driveway, she smoothes out her skirt and combs her fingers through her hair, and Puck looks very accomplished to be the one who made got her all out of sorts.

"You sure they won't care?" And he asks it just because if she gets grounded, they won't be able to do this anymore, not because he's concerned. (It'll take him a while to really admit that he genuinely cares about her. For now, this'll do.)

"They trust me," she says with a shrug.

Puck grins wolfishly and buries his hand in her hair (partly just to mess it up again). "They don't know we were just making out for two hours, like, five minutes away."

And the thing is, two hours of making out with Rachel was pretty much more fun than two hours of doing anything else. (Almost.)

"Noah!" she hisses, as if someone might have heard him or something. He laughs and shakes his head at her. "Thank you for the ride." She must be able to tell he's biting his tongue. "Don't say it."

She leans forward, kisses him in a way that makes him want to sneak past her dads' room to be with her, and then she straightens out the collar of his shirt.

"I'll call you tomorrow," he says. She eyes him as she reaches for the door handle. "I promise."

She smiles again before she hops out of his truck and skips (literally, skips, and he'd make fun of her for it if he didn't like the way she looks when she does it) toward the door.

He calls her the next day. It's the first of a bunch of promises he'll keep.

-Fin-