'You cannot be serious,' Rachel tells him, tone flat. She's folded her arms across her chest and is somehow managing to peer down her nose at him despite the fact that she barely reaches his shoulder. Puck shrugs his shoulders, watching as she pulls a few thick textbooks out of her locker for the weekend.
'C'mon Berry. It isn't like you've got anything else better to do,' he tells her. He can already tell it's the wrong thing to say because Rachel slams the door to her locker somewhat violently, and Puck jerks instinctively back.
'If that is an attempt to persuade me, I'm sorry to inform you that it's having the exact opposite effect,' she says in this haughty tone that made Puck want to roll his eyes. It was times like this he wondered why he was even friends with the chick in the first place. But then he remembers the resolute way Rachel has stuck up for him since the big reveal about Quinn's baby, the way she's somehow managed to wriggle her way under his skin and become an integral part of his life. It was kind of terrifying, but in a good way Puck thinks. Because if there was one person you wanted in your corner, it was Rachel Berry with her gold stars and pit bull determination.
'Hey look,' Puck attempts to placate her, even going so far as to forcibly remove the books from her arm and settle them into his own. She gives him a suspicious look and then simply stares straight ahead, Puck slowing his stride to match hers. 'I mean haven't you ever thought about what goes on up there?'
'Noah, what you are referring to is simply a myth. There is no such thing as ghosts.'
'Dude, Linder was practically shitting his pants when he told us about what went down at the hospital last night,' Puck breathes out, remembering the fucking horrified expression plastered all over the behemoth linebacker's face.
'I fail to see why you need me to come along with you,' Rachel questions as he holds open the door for her. She gives him a quick smile and completely misses the puzzled frown that comes over Puck's features. He didn't know why Rachel needed to be there. Truth was Berry was probably going to scream her fucking head off and jump on his back. Not that that wasn't a terrible idea, Puck considers, as he takes in her long legs. If a hot girl wanted to get up all on this, who was he to deny her that right?
'Because Berry,' he makes sure his face is serious, 'tonight is going to be epic.'
Rachel actually snorts.
'What? You chicken or something?' Puck taunts because he suddenly realizes the easiest way to goard Rachel into anything was to poke at her weak spot – her ego.
'Hardly,' she bites back and struggles to lift her trolley bag into the back of his truck. Puck doesn't even bother to be polite as he grabs the things out of her hands and throws it inside, dumping the rest of her books carelessly beside it.
'I think that you are Berry,' Puck drawls as he helps her into the cab. 'S'okay. You're not the first girl to be scared of the paranormal. Don't know what I was thinking. Forget it.'
'I am not afraid of ghosts!' Rachel practically yells into his ears. 'There is no such thing and when you step foot into that hospital, you'll see that I'm right.'
Puck clucks like a chicken instead.
Rachel gapes.
A few hours later finds Rachel crammed inside his truck along with Puck, Mike and Matt. Puck tries to ignore the way Rachel's thigh and chest are pressing into his side because of the close quarters, instead humming along to Kansas on the mix tape Mike had slotted into his CD player. Mike is drumming his fingers along the window while Matt has his arms slung over the back of the seat.
'Man, stop playing with my hair,' Puck feels Matt's fingers brush against the back of his neck. Matt mumbles an apology and instead settles his arm around Rachel's shoulders. The knuckles of on his steering wheel turn white as Puck tries to figure out why this upsets him.
'I cannot believe we're doing this,' Rachel's voice breaks the comfortable silence that has hung inside the truck. Puck signals right to turn onto Western Ohio.
'This is so awesome. I can't believe we're actually doing this,' Mike crows like a little girl.
'Calm the fuck down Other Asian. You sound like you just saw Justin Bieber,' Puck shoots back.
'Dude, how the hell do you know who Justin Bieber is?' Matt asks, surprised.
'Hannah hasn't shut the fuck up about him since last week. Guy looks like a twelve year old girl,' Puck wrinkles his nose at his little sister's latest obsession. 'Those Jonas Brothers actually look legit next to that idiot.'
'His vocals are sub par at best,' Rachel interjects. She's fidgeting in her place, shifting this way and that, pressing herself against him unintentionally (at least he hopes so). 'I cannot believe I'm actually participating in this nonsensical endeavour!'
'I full on Jedi mind tricked you Berry,' Puck tells her smugly. 'A little of the gun show and you were totally bedazzled.'
'Yes Noah, your lovely arms haunt my dreams,' Rachel retorts, pressing her hands against the tight tank top she's wearing and fluttering her eyelashes.
'Whatever. Don't pretend like you didn't like the taste of Puck pie you've had,' Puck leers at her and Rachel slaps his arm. 'Ow Berry! Quit assaulting me!'
'Children,' Matt clucks out as Puck turns right at Garden Boulevard. The night air is still and Puck can't hear any crickets or whatever insect life that he's supposed to be hearing. It kind of makes his stomach curl but he flicks on the high beams, glancing down at the crude map Linder had drawn for him.
'We're here,' Mike announces as the hospital looms ahead of them behind the iron gate. There's a metal chain and padlock hanging in the front, with a sign that screams Trespassers will be prosecuted.
'Look at that!' Rachel hisses, grabbing his arm as he cuts the engine and pointing towards the sign. 'We could get arrested.'
'Will you chill the fuck out Berry?' Puck grumbles, gently removing her hand from his bicep. Her hands are so tiny they couldn't even make their way round his arm. 'There's no one but the four of us for practically a million miles.'
'For some reason, that doesn't appear to comfort me,' she mutters under her breath as Mike turns on the flashlight he's brought along. Puck slides out of the truck, hands settling around Rachel's waist as he helps her out. His touch lingers for a second too long and Rachel tilts her head to the side. Clearing his throat, Puck steps around her and heads towards Mike and Matt who are elbows deep in the duffle the three of them had put together. He doesn't miss the fact that Rachel practically runs to keep up with him.
'Is that a gun?' Rachel whispers, brown eyes flying wide open.
'It's a BB gun,' Matt quickly assures her.
'You did the salt thing?' Puck asks and Matt nods, shaking the gun and letting the salt pellets inside rattle.
'Salt?' Rachel looks like she doesn't want to ask the question.
'We're about to find ourselves in some Sam and Dean Winchester shit Rachel,' Mike says as he hefts out an iron poker. Rachel gives the three of them a look, like she can't even begin to comprehend the sheer stupidity that's coming her way.
'While admittedly Jensen Ackles is the epitome of male perfection-' Puck frowns at her words, '-it doesn't disguise the fact that the show is a work of fiction!'
'Relax. The writers do research and crap,' Matt thinks he's calming her down. Puck spots the tic above her right eyebrow and knows that didn't quell her ire at all.
'Imbeciles! The lot of you!' She forces through clenched teeth. Puck shares a look with Mike and Matt before loosely grasping Rachel's shoulder and dragging her a few feet away.
'Listen to me,' Puck intones, leaning down so that his nose is barely touching hers. Something electric fills the space between them but Puck chalks it up to adrenaline. 'We're teenage boys okay? We do stupid, moronic things like trying to figure out how many buffalo wings we can cram into our mouths without hurling all over the table. So can we just consider this some rite of passage? Because if you're going to spend the next hour or whatever ragging on us, you can wait in the car.'
'I am not waiting in the car,' Rachel says immediately and Puck feels kind of bad when he hears the fear in her voice. There are goosebumps sprouting up her bare arms and Puck rubs his palm over them, trying to keep her warm. She's practically a midget and probably freezing.
'C'mon. I'll get you a jacket,' is all he says and Rachel drifts back towards Mike and Matt, who eye her warily. When Puck emerges with a worn McKinely sweatshirt, Rachel is gesturing towards the hospital and telling their friends where the best possible entry point is.
'Thanks,' she murmurs shyly and Puck takes a moment to appreciate the way Rachel looks in his clothes, glaring when Mike gives him this retarded smile.
'Ready?' Matt looks at the three of them. Puck and Mike nod and Rachel heaves out a sigh before doing the same. The gaps in the gate are big enough for them to squeeze through. As Mike and Matt walk a few paces ahead, Puck practically jumps out of his skin when Rachel's cold fingers find his own. She's biting her lip and pretending that everything is normal so Puck gives her hand a squeeze and tugs her towards him, close enough that they don't get in each other's way.
There is a quiet, haunting feel about the place when they slip inside the building. Puck brushes off the pollen stuck to his pants from the long stalks of wild grass they had had to go through, the light from his torch bouncing off what looked like a front desk.
'I feel like I'm Linda Blair,' Mike says softly but his words echo around.
'You feel that?' Matt asks and Puck feels the back of his neck prickle, as if he is being watched.
'Yeah,' he answers shortly and feels Rachel's hand shake inside his grip. He catches a glimpse of her face but it doesn't show any fear and Puck is kind of impressed. If it were Quinn or some other girl, they'd already be crying. Probably not Santana though. Heck, Puck wagered that'd whatever was in here would probably run crying from Senorita Loca.
'Shhh,' Rachel suddenly hisses and they all freeze. There is a muffled sound and Puck raises his eyes to look above.
'Shit, there isn't any electricity in this place right?' Mike says out of the corner of his mouth.
'Noah-'
'Look, it's probably just our minds fucking with us okay? The adrenaline or whatever,' Puck interrupts Rachel and injects authority into his tone.
'You're right,' Rachel finally whispers, voice small. Puck practically squeezes the blood out of her hand.
'Hey check this out,' Matt gestures towards a stack of tires piled up in front of a door. The four of them crowd around, surveying the area around. There's scorch marks decorating the walls and floor, as if a fire had eaten its way through the inside of the area.
'Looks like a barricade,' Mike thinks out loud and Puck wonders why there's one there. The hospital had been used to treat tuberculosis patients back in the day and Puck didn't think that someone weak and barely conscious was going to pose much of a threat.
Thud. Thud.
Puck whipped his head around, trying to find the source of the noise.
'What's that?' Rachel whisper shrieked.
The pounding sound grew louder, harder, faster. It was as if someone was charging towards them.
'Run!' Puck wasn't sure which one of them says it but suddenly the four of them were hurtling towards the side entrance, feet slipping.
'It's coming closer!' This time Rachel full on screams and Puck hauls her against his side, twisting his head around as the pounding filled the narrow hallway. It drowns out the sharp pain stitching up his side and the harsh panting of his breath as he pushes his way closer towards the exit.
'Fuck Rutherford! Swiss cheese that motherfucker!' Puck shouts, pushing Mike hard to force him forward. Matt obliges, hand on the trigger even before he's turned around. The pellets explode against the walls and floor with a deafening bang and Puck doesn't know whether it's worked or not.
'Shit!' Mike wheezes out, the iron poker in his grasp clanging against the floor. No one bothers to pick it back up.
They burst through the entrance, pushing through the grass as if the devil himself were on their heels. Puck feels his skin catch against the rusty metal of the gate but he didn't care. He threw Rachel into the cab and turned the key in the ignition, Mike scrambling to climb inside as he backs out of the pathway full throttle. Rachel is still clutching his hand like a lifeline, eyes practically falling out of their sockets.
They don't speak and Puck can only hear the sharp intake of breath, the chattering of teeth, the clacking of bones. The terror that courses through his veins makes it difficult to breathe and Puck thinks that tonight was the stupidest fucking idea he's ever had. And that's counting sexing up Quinn Fabray.
'You saw that too right? That…whatever it was through the window,' Mike shatters the tense silence with his words when Puck pulls up outside the Rutherford household. Puck swallows, seeing the blurry outline of something darting in and out of his vision. He doesn't answer the question and Mike and Matt simply close the door, not even bothering to say goodnight.
'I'm staying with you,' Rachel is almost in his lap when she says this and Puck's too busy trying not to piss his pants to disagree. Besides his mother's working graveyard and Hannah's over at a sleepover.
He tells Rachel to wait in the car, headlights on full blast, as he unlocks the front door to his house. His hands are shaking when they reach for the light switch and Puck doesn't even care how it looks that he's turned on every fucking light they have. He locks up the truck and pretty much carries Rachel inside, bolting the front door and slowly making his way up the stairs with Rachel in his arms. His elbow finds the light switch in his room and Puck doesn't even ask if Rachel wants it on.
Besides, if anyone asks he'd just say it was for her.
It is under the white glow of his ceiling fan that he sees the tears on Rachel's cheeks. His chest squeezes and this time its not fear but remorse and anger.
'Fuck Rach, don't cry,' he mumbles desperately and Rachel just lets out this little sob as she folds herself onto his single bed, facing away from him. He sits down on the small sliver of space left and hesitantly reaches for her face, something inside uncoiling when she doesn't flinch away from his touch. Soon he's smoothing the pieces of hair behind her ear and telling her that he's sorry for bringing her, that he's an asshole and she'd totally be in the right if she kicked him in the balls.
'That sounds painful,' she laughs and its wet and full of tears but at least it's a laugh.
'I shouldn't have made you come with,' he protests. Rachel sniffles and angles her face to look at him. Her eyes and nose are red, whatever makeup she's had on completely gone now.
Puck doesn't think he's seen anything more adorable.
'I insisted.'
'Only after I fucking made you,' he retorts, rubbing the shell of her ear absently.
'Can we just go to bed?' She asks, sounding tired and scared. Puck nods his head and gets up off the bed, pulling his shoes off as Rachel does the same. The comforter is pulled back and Puck doesn't know what to think when Rachel presses her body against his, flush and close. Her ass is grazing the front of his jeans and Puck squirms uncomfortably, shifting away as he settles the comforter over the both of them. He closes his eyes and breathes in her shampoo.
Rustling makes him open his eyes and he finds himself staring into a pair of doe ones.
'I feel safe,' she says, making it sound like an announcement. Puck attempts to push away the feeling of elation and astonishment that accompanies her words and raises an eyebrow.
'Thanks?' He doesn't know what to say.
Suddenly she's pressing her lips against his. It's short, quick. The barest brush of her lips against his. But it sends a charge that crackles over his skin and makes his stomach twist with anticipation.
'You're welcome,' she says, burying her head under his chin. Puck lies flat on his back, Rachel half on top of him with his arm firmly wrapped around her shoulder. Her fist his balled up against his chest and soon her fingers are fisting the excess material of his sweatshirt. And then her breathing evens out and she's just asleep, breath even and everything.
Your best friend just kissed you.
Don't even try to fucking deny you liked it Puckerman.
The thought makes him press his cheek against her hair and pull her closer. Rachel murmurs something unintelligible before hooking her leg over his. Puck smiles drowsily before feeling his heart rate subside, the panic from the hospital subsiding.
After all, who needed rock salt when he had Rachel Berry?