Hey! Sorry this one took so long to get up. I'll admit. I got into posting other fics that I had on my hard drive and totally forgot that this verse wasn't done yet. I'll get them up periodically over the next week or so. There are only five more ficlets after this one. For anyone new to the verse, it begins with Here In The Dark (Our Two Hearts Are One), followed by Deborah Puckerman, Mike Chang, Mercedes Jones, Kurt Hummel, Blaine Anderson, Tina Cohen-Chang, and then Artie Abrams. Also, for anyone new:

When I post the next parts of this verse, they will be independent one-shots, so if you want to follow the verse through email alerts, add me to your Author alerts rather than to your Story Alert.

And as always, please review! Even if it's just to shoot a quick "liked it".

Disclaimer: Glee doesn't belong to me.

Artie Abrams
One-shot

Artie did research.

When Puck woke up in the hospital and started to panic, saying that he couldn't see, a wave of nausea washed over him. He remembered waking up after the car accident and the way he'd reacted when he realized that he couldn't feel his legs. He'd researched then, too. Sat in front of his computer screen for hours on end, click, click, clicking away at every site he could find, and reading through his chances then and Puck's chances now.

Somewhere in him, though, he knew the first time Puck said it. Knew that no matter what numbers he found or how much Quinn prayed that Puck would never see again. Felt it deep down in his gut, but it didn't make him feel any better when the doctors confirmed it.

He wasn't the least bit surprised when Puck shut himself away after being released. He'd done the same thing.

It didn't stop him, though, from asking Mrs. Puckerman to keep a close eye on him. He'd been too young at eight to understand the concept of suicide, but Puck was older and he'd made reckless decisions before (ATM, case and point).

He couldn't say that he hadn't breathed a sigh of relief when Puck really started to smile again.

They never really sat down for a big, emotional talk. He hadn't expected them to. They'd been lucky enough as it was that Puck had accepted all the help he had. The other teen didn't talk about the accident. Artie didn't even think that anyone had heard him so much as mention Santana's party once. He understood it, though. It took him a long time before he could talk about the car accident and he still hated whenever the topic came up.

School was hard. People were assholes. Artie had known that for a long time. But when someone snorted one day as he was leading Puck to homeroom and made a crack about the cripple leading the cripple?

He couldn't be blamed for "accidentally" rolling over their foot.

Puck may not have been able to see anymore, but when the shout and resulting insult came, he smiled.

The End

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