A/N: This chapter's lyrics are from a song by Owl City (and as I'm sure you'll notice, it's the song this story is named after).

And with that said, I present to you the final chapter…

Chapter 16: If My Heart Was A House

Circle me and the needle moves gracefully
Back and forth
If my heart was a compass you'd be north
Risk it all cause I'll catch you if you fall
Wherever you go
If my heart was a house you'd be home.

The call comes exactly on schedule. Puck lets it ring a couple times, trying not to seem too eager, before nonchalantly lifting the phone to his ear.

"Hey…"

"Hey, man," Finn says.

Puck glances quickly from his place in the kitchen into the living room, where Quinn is seated on the couch, holding Beth in her arms. The baby appears to be wide awake, making the adorable little squeaking sounds they've become fondly accustomed to over the last two and a half months. Even though Quinn is clearly enthralled in interacting with their daughter, Puck decides to take the phone call into their room. He doesn't want her to catch even a hint of their conversation.

"Everything going according to plan?" Puck asks, unable to keep the anxious tone from his voice.

"Yup," Finn answers. "I'm on my way to pick up the food now."

"You didn't actually light the candles yet, right? Because no one's there right now, and that's kind of a fire hazard-"

"Relax, man," Finn says, chuckling softly, "I'm not that dumb. I'm going back after I get the food and then I'll light them, just like you told me to."

"Sorry." Puck runs along the back of his neck tiredly. "I just...I want everything to be perfect."

"It will be. Don't worry, Puck. There's no way Quinn isn't going to love this."

"I know," Puck says, a small smile coming to his face. "It is kind of awesome, isn't it?"

"It's amazing," Finn agrees. "Now, I've get going. I'm at the restaurant. I'll send you a text when I'm finished setting everything up."

"Alright," Puck says. "And thanks, Finn. For doing all this, I mean. I couldn't have done it without you."

"I was glad to help. Although I've gotta say, it's been pretty hard keeping this all from Rachel. She's been getting kind of suspicious."

"It'll all be over soon," Puck says. "And the wait will be worth it. She'll be as shocked as Quinn."

Finn laughs. "She'll probably be even more shocked, knowing her. Anyway, good luck, man."

"Thanks," Puck says.

He releases a long sigh as he hangs up. He wants everything to be perfect tonight. This has been over two months in the making and if anything goes wrong...well, he just can't allow himself to think about that.

"Was that Finn?" Quinn asks as he joins his girlfriend and daughter in the living room.

"Yeah," he says, taking a seat next to her. He looks down at Beth, who is now situated comfortably in her bouncer on top of the coffee table. She shakes her hands and legs around happily, one of her favorite activities of late - and something that always makes Puck laugh.

"How's my little girl doing?" Puck says, grinning down at Beth, who's now staring curiously up at him with those adorable blue eyes of hers. He reaches out to grab her tiny hand and she quickly curls her hand around his index fingers. Puck's smile widens; he loves it when she does that.

"Do you think she's going to be okay without us?" Quinn says. She's got that worried look on her face again, the same one she got last week he told her that he was planning on taking her out for their first date since Beth was born. He doesn't understand why she's so anxious, though. Quinn started to work again a few weeks ago, and even though her shifts are shorter than normal, she's still spending at least a few hours away from Beth. Tonight, however, is the first time they've left Beth alone without at least one of them home.

"Your mom is over here all the time," Puck says. Judy had recently moved to New York after making the decision to start completely fresh in her post-divorce life. Puck was surprised to find that it was actually pretty nice having her around, especially when they needed help with Beth. "Beth knows her face almost as well as she knows ours. She's gonna be fine, Quinn."

"I know," Quinn says reluctantly.

"And we'll only be gone for a few hours," Puck adds, seeing that Quinn still needs a little extra reassurance. "And we'll call halfway through to check up on her."

"Halfway through?" She eyes him slyly. "I was thinking every half hour..."

He raises an eyebrow. "Quinn..."

"I'm kidding," she says and then adds under her breath. "Maybe."

"After you've seen what I've got planned you'll probably be too distracted to think about calling."

"And what do you have planned?" Quinn asks. The annoyed look on her face tells him that she already knows what his answer will be.

He just laughs. "I don't know why you bother to keep asking. I told you that it's a surprise and I'm not going to change my mind. Just have a little patience, babe. You're gonna find out soon enough."

"Fine," Quinn grumbles. "But you know I don't like surprises."

"You're gonna love this one," Puck says, trying to sound as confident as possible.

At least he hopes she will.

Because if she doesn't, he's kind of screwed.

888

"Where are we going?" Quinn asks again, because at this rate she really doesn't have a clue.

Instead of hailing a cab outside their apartment, as she expected he would, he had simply taken her hand and started leading her down the sidewalk. This fact alone was surprising, since there weren't a lot of restaurants that they actually liked around their neighborhood, and when he said they were going out, she could have only assumed that he meant they were going out for dinner. Apparently not, though, given the location. This annoys her slightly because she hasn't ate much today and now she's practically starving.

"Patience, Quinn," is Puck's reply. Of course it has the opposite effect, especially since he has told her the exact same thing the past two times she asked.

"We've walked almost eight blocks and you still haven't said a word about where we're going. I'm done being patient."

"Eight blocks is nothing. And we've got just a few more to go. Nothing wrong with a little exercise anyway."

"Why didn't we just take a cab? I'm not exactly wearing walking shoes," she says, motioning down to the black stilettos that she had bought a few days ago in celebration of the swelling in her feet finally going down. After all this walking, though, she had feeling her feet would be even worse off than they had been during her pregnancy.

Puck chuckles. "You were so excited about new shoes. Only God knows why - I mean seriously they're shoes, who cares? But still, I didn't have the heart to tell you that you shouldn't wear them."

Quinn grumbles in response, although she's really not that put out by this as she's making him think. Whatever Puck has planned, he's obviously put a lot of thought into it and she's pretty sure it'll make up for a long walk in high heels.

"It's gonna be worth it, okay?" Puck says, as if reading her thoughts. He squeezes her hand. "Trust me."

So she does, and they continue their walk for just a few more minutes until he finally stops. He's standing in front of an empty store space, situated in between a popular tanning shop and a Chinese restaurant that she's never been to before. She begins to walk into the restaurant, assuming that's where they're eating, but he grabs her hand and nods at the empty shop.

"What's this?" she asks curiously.

He grins at her. "How do you feel about opening that bakery of yours?"

Quinn looks at him incredulously. "Wait, did you...?"

"Buy this place? Yup, I did. Closed the deal on Monday, actually. This is why I wanted us to walk here. I wanted you see that it's not that far from our place, so we never have to worry about traffic or anything like that."

For a moment, she just stands there, absolutely frozen. Because this can't be real - he can't have possibly bought her a place to start the business she's wanted for years. There's just no way.

"But...how?"

Laughing lightly, he pulls out a key and leads her to the front door. "I'll explain inside," he says. "I want you to see this place. It's absolutely perfect."

Wordlessly, she follows him inside. The room is lit only by candlelight, but it's more than enough for her to get a good look, while also giving the room a romantic feeling. There's one long counter on right hand side of the room and a few shelves behind it. The floor is a dark hardwood and even though there are a few noticeable scuff marks, it's in fairly good shape. In the center of the room is one small table set for two.

"It used to be a pizzeria," Puck explains, "but it went out of a business a few months ago. I know some of the cabinets are out of date, and we'll need to repaint the walls, but I don't think it'll take that much work to make this place look presentable. Besides, once you take a look at the kitchen, you'll understand why this place is so awesome."

And she does. The kitchen is huge. Bigger than any kitchen she's ever been in. The appliances are older, but all seem to be in working condition, and there's a big freezer in the back corner and plenty of storage space.

"They left a lot of cooking supplies here, too," Puck said. "So we can save a little money there." He grins as he points out the brick oven. "We can even make pizza too. Although they kind of failed at that once here, so maybe not."

Quinn stops in the middle of the room, taking it all in. She still can't believe that this place is actually hers, that she actually gets to start on the this dream she has had for so long. She looks at Puck, who's just watching her, a soft smile on his face.

"How?" she asks, walking over to him. "How could you afford this?"

"I couldn't," he says, crossing his arms in a pleased sort of way as he leans against the counter. "At least not all of it. So I asked your mom for a loan."

She isn't sure she likes where this is headed. "Puck..."

"I know, I know, you hate borrowing money from your parents. But I figured this would be worth it. Besides, your mom said no to the loan."

"But you said-"

"If you'd let me finish," he said with a grin.

She chuckles. "Go ahead."

"She said no to the loan because she didn't want it to be a loan. She wanted to actually buy it for you. She doesn't want you to pay her back."

Quinn's eyes widen. "She paid for all of this?"

"Most of it. I couldn't let her buy the whole thing, wouldn't have felt right. But yeah, it's really thanks to her that we have this place. She wants you to accomplish your dream, Quinn, and so do I. You don't really need to finish school to do this. But your mom did say that if you want to, she'll pay for that too. The only thing she did ask is that she gets to help start this place up."

Quinn just shakes her head in disbelief, tears welling up in her eyes. It's all so overwhelming; she can barely take it in.

Puck smiles as he wraps an arm around Quinn's waist and pulls her body closer to him. "Do you like it?"

She lets out a watery laugh before falling into his embrace. "I love it," she murmurs.

"Good. Cause you know it would really suck if you didn't."

She leans her head against his chest and smiles. "How could I not? It's perfect."

"It's gonna be amazing, Quinn." He runs his hand through her hair, an excited smile on his face, and she can tell he's already put a lot of thought into this. "I know that starting a small business is always risky, but I really think that we can make it work. I mean, you're practically already running a catering company. Now you've got a place to actually do it all and customers who will follow you here. And I'm gonna do this with you, Quinn. Right now I'm gonna have to split time between here and the guitar shop, but eventually I want to be able to work here full-time."

"You'd leave your job behind for this?" she asks, surprised, because Puck loves his job, and more than anything he loves being able to work with music.

"Of course. I can't think of a better job than going into the baking business with my wife."

Quinn just nods happily, glancing around once more at the kitchen. "When can we get started on fixing this place up?" she asks.

"As soon as we want. Your mom and I have actually already started shopping around for some-"

"Wait." Her eyes narrow as she realizes something - something that may have just been a slip of the tongue, but still, she has to ask. "Did you just say that you couldn't think of a better job than going into business with your wife?"

Puck looks a bit hazy at this, but then his lips twist into a soft smile and her heartbeat quickens as she wonders if this means what she thinks it means. "Picked up on that, huh?" he says.

And then he's reaching into his coat pocket and pulling out a tiny black box. She sucks in a breath; the surprises just keep on coming tonight. He looks at her nervously for a moment, a shaky grin on his face, before opening the box and falling down to one knee.

"Quinn, I love you so much. I know we haven't been together that long, but when you know, you know, right? And I know I've found the girl I'm gonna spend the rest of my life with. So...will you marry me?"

She doesn't even need to think. Why would she? "Yes," she says, her eyes welling up with tears. "Yes, of course I'll marry you."

Beaming, he stands up, pulls her into his arms, and kisses her senseless. She smiles against his lips and the tears fall freely, but she doesn't care because this is one of the happiest moments of her life, second only to when she first held her daughter in her arms.

"I love you," she says as they both pull away.

Cradling their hands together in between them, he leans his forehead against hers. "I love you too." Then he pulls the ring back out, holding it out towards her. "I think you're supposed to wear this."

She grins. "I am, aren't I?"

He slips it carefully onto her finger, a perfect fit, and she admires the ring for a moment. It's a smaller diamond on a silver band, but it's beautiful.

"I wanted to ask you sooner," Puck says, and she looks back at him. "I actually bought the ring a few days before Beth was born, which was when I first saw this place. But I had planned this whole thing out, and I wanted it to be here, and since this place wasn't officially ours until a few days ago, the proposal had to wait."

"Well, the wait was worth it," she says. "Because this...everything...it's perfect. It's all perfect."

"Glad you think so," he says, chuckling softly.

"What changed?" she asks suddenly, her mind drifting back to a moment they had shared some time ago."At Rachel and Finn's wedding you said that marriage wasn't for you."

"I did say that. But I also said that if I found the right girl, I might change my mind. And the right girl is standing right in front of me."

Her lips crack into almost a shy smile, her eyes falling down at the ground. When he says things like that, she can't help but blush. It used to annoy her that he had that sort of control over her. Now, though, she has to admit that she kind of likes it.

Lifting her chin with his finger, he meets his eyes with hers before placing a gentle kiss on her lips. "I've got some dinner heating up over there," Puck says, nodding over to the large oven. "It's ready to eat whenever you are."

She cocks an eyebrow. "Did you make it?"

"Of course not," he says, chuckling. "I wasn't about to ruin the night with my awful cooking. It's takeout from that Italian place you love."

Quinn smiles. "Perfect."

"Yeah," he says, turning serious once more as he takes her left hand in his. He rubs his thumb against her ring finger, smiling as he feels the diamond against his skin. "It is, isn't it?"

"I couldn't imagine anything better," Quinn murmurs, and she's not just talking about tonight.

"This is just the beginning, Quinn," he says, running a hand along the edge of her face. "We're gonna have the most amazing life together."

"We already do," Quinn says, and she leans in for another kiss.

And then his lips are on hers, and he knows, knows with everything he has, that she's right - that everything they have now is all they'll ever need, all they have ever wanted, and anything else is just the great big cherry on top of it all.

A/N: And that's a wrap (and a very fluffy one at that).

Thanks so much to everyone for reading! And to those who reviewed/favorited/alerted - it's because of your support that I stuck with this story. I have to admit there were times when I felt like giving up on it, because my love for Glee just isn't what it used to be and because my frustration with the way Quinn and Puck have been treated on the show has caused me to pull even further away from the show, but you guys pushed me to continue and I really do appreciate that.

As of now I have no plans to write a sequel to this. I'll actually to be taking a break from writing for Glee in order to focus on a story I'm writing for another fandom, so I don't know when I'll get back to Quinn and Puck – but I do hope to get back to them someday!

Thanks again for everyone's support!