Title: Heaven, Hell, and Everything in Between

Pairing: Puck/Rachel (Puckleberry)

Rating: K+ for now, but can probably go up.

Summary: AU. Rachel Berry's home is heaven. On the contrary, Noah Puckerman's is hell. What would happen when they meet in between?

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee.

A/N: Hello! It's me, again. I've recently deleted two of my stories because I hit an absolute dead end with both. It wasn't complete, so it didn't feel right to mark it as complete and just leave it hanging. So I deleted it. I send huge apologies to those who alerted and/or favorited those stories. So I'm here now, starting fresh, and hopefully I will be able to finish the story this time. Oh, and in this story, Puck's birthday is the same date as Rachel's. And they live across the street. And Puck's dad is dead; his mom is the deadbeat. This isn't beta-ed, so all mistakes are mine. Well, without further ado, I present the first chapter. And I apologize for the long author's note.

Chapter 1: Contrasts

-December 2000: Rachel-

"Happy birthday, Princess! You're six today!" cried her daddy Leroy as he picked her up and spun her around. He set her down and she looked up, seeing both her fathers in ridiculous outfits, party hats, and her dad Hiram holding a large, pink, birthday cake. She grinned and hugged both her fathers, careful not to hug her dad too hard to avoid the cake from falling.

"Thank you, dad, daddy!" squealed Rachel Berry, jumping up and down. Her pajama-clad body oozes excitement and happiness. Her daddy smiled and picked her up again, nuzzling his nose against hers, and tickling her sides a little, making her giggle.

Rachel looked down at her dad's arms where her cake was. It was beautiful. It was pink, with the picture of a little girl holding an award and gold stars scattered all around it. Her daddy lit up the six little colorful candles and she blew them, happiness etched across her face.

After that, her dad brought the cake downstairs to the dining room while her daddy helped her wash up and into clean clothes. She then bounded downstairs, holding the teddy bear her dad got her on her birthday last year. She went to the kitchen and kissed her dad on the cheek, then grabbed her milk that was already prepared for her on the table.

"Can we watch Funny Girl today, daddy?" she asked, looking up at her daddy.

"Anything for you, starshine," Leroy said. "It is your birthday, after all."

Rachel squealed and ran to the sofa, sitting and playing with her bear while she waited for her daddy who was setting up their brand new DVD set and put the movie on. Hiram came about halfway through the movie, bringing some breakfast for the girl to eat.

She smiled at her dad and got her attention back to the movie. Life is good.

-December 2000: Noah-

Noah Puckerman opened his eyes to see the dark, plain walls of his room. He turned his head to the right and looked at his calendar.

There, right there. On the eighteenth. The writing "My birthday" was there. Small and bare, but it was there.

He couldn't believe he turned six today. He just turned six, finally he was more than just one hand, and his dad isn't here to see. All he has is a little, bratty sister… and mom. His deadbeat, drunk, violent, angry mom.

He closed his eyes again and remembered last year's birthday party. It had been huge. His parents had invited every single one of their friends to come. The party was held in their backyard. It was fun, everyone was happy.

Then his life comes crashing down a few months later, when he and his dad got into an accident while he was picking him up from a friend's house. They collided with a huge truck. The driver of the truck was drunk, so it was clearly his fault. He made it out with just a few bruises, but his dad didn't make it at all.

At first, his mom was supportive. She was sad, of course, but she still took care of him and his sister Sarah. At first it worked well. But then, she started drinking, and she started to get angry. But no matter how angry she was, she never laid a finger on Noah. But she got more and more violent as time passed. Only to Noah, not to his little sister. It was like she was blaming him for the accident.

He sighed and got out of bed. He looked at himself in the mirror and sighed again. He looked awful. He has dark circles under his eyes, swollen lips and blue and black marks all over his arms and face. He looked older than any six year old in the world. He looked… he simply looked like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Suddenly he heard a cry, which means his baby sister was awake. He quickly ran to the room next to his and carefully picked his sister up and shushed her down, afraid that his mom might hear and that she might wake up. He prayed silently that Sarah hadn't awaken his mom, but the pounding sounds of footsteps across the hallway tells him differently.

The door burst open with a bang, causing his sister to cry again, louder than before.

"How many times have I told you to keep that brat quiet?" his mom yelled at him, furious. Noah just looked down, afraid to look up and see his mom's face, which was once filled with love and comfort. She grabbed Noah's arms and yanked him forward, almost causing him to drop Sarah. "I need my sleep, you idiot. If I hear one more sound coming from this room, you won't get anything to eat for three days. Understand?"

Noah nodded and shrunk back, away from his mom. After she left the room he sighed again, cooing Sarah and rocking her slowly so she wouldn't cry.

He looked out the window of his sister's room and to the house across of his. That was the house the Berrys live in. He stares inside the upstairs window and saw the little girl, Rachel, being held by both of her fathers.

And that's the day he first got jealous of her.

She got to have two dads while he has none.