Disclaimer: I, of course, do not own Glee or any of the characters.

Warning: Angsty

Rating: T for Puck's mouth

Characters: Puck/Rachel

Summary: Sequel to "Sometimes It Hurts Instead". Puck-centric future fic about his marriage and feelings about a certain Broadway star. Title comes from "Everytime" by Simple Plan.

A/N: Thank you to everyone that read & reviewed "Sometimes It Hurt Instead"! You guys definitely inspired me to write this sequel! The first chapter will be the shortest, I want to get into the meat of the story in the second & last chapters. This will be angsty but I promise it's worth it so stick with me! I'm going to try to update as quickly as possible, maybe a chapter a day until it's finished. This isn't beta'd so any mistakes are my own, please read & review, they make my day!

Puck isn't sure when his marriage started to crubble around him. He could probably pinpoint it to a day or a particular fight, if he really tried, but he doesn't bother looking for one. He's been married a little over a year, and he figured he had it within himself to make it work. Maggie works long hours and Puck has learned to deal with it. He eats dinner alone most of the time and she sometimes doesn't come in until he's already gone to bed.

He spends the majority of his time writing. Something clicked in him a few months back and he hasn't been able to put a pen down since. If he let himself think about it, he's sure it would all come back to Rachel showing up at his door one night late in October. Now it's March and he hasn't heard from her again. It doesn't surprise him, he knew that was the last time she'd come looking for him. He wasn't sure what he'd do if she did.

Some days he found himself thinking back on their relationship, thinking of that last week together leading up to their breakup. That week had been one of the worst of his life. He wasn't sure if he wanted to break it off with her, or if he wanted to stay and have it just hurt worse later on. He knew she was better off without him, but that didn't stop him from wanting to be with her. He told her that, told her that maybe they should just take a break, for her to come and find him when she was ready again. He told her that he loved her more than anything else but he was just holding her back. She asked him if he'd wait for her, and he said he would, as long as it would take. He realizes now how selfish it was of her to ask, and how stupid he was to say he would. He moved his shit out the next day and kissed her on the cheek as he left, telling her that no matter what he'd always love her. That had been the end of that.

He met Maggie when she was working as a bartender at a bar him and his friends from work frequented often. Up until her, he hadn't been in a relationship since Rachel. He had women in his life, girls he could call when he needed to get off, but they didn't mean anything to him past that. His heart still belonged to Rachel, and when he started seeing Maggie regularly he didn't think that would change. Then one day it did. He heard from his friends that Rachel started seeing someone and that it sounded serious. That was the day he decided to give his relationship with Maggie a real shot. He wasn't getting any younger, and it was clear after all that time that Rachel wasn't going to be asking for him back. He felt like an idiot for waiting that long anyways.

He told Finn after six months of dating Maggie that he was going to propose to her. Finn helped him find a ring, and Puck proposed to her at a nice Italian resturant on a Tuesday night in November. They got married at the courthouse two months later. Maggie had just gotten a cush job as a receptionist at a law firm, and Puck was getting recognition for his work and was making a lot more money. They decided to buy a little two bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, and moved in a week after their wedding.

They were happy at first, Puck was happier than he'd been in a long time. Sometimes he thought that maybe they had gotten into marriage a little too soon. She was as different from Rachel as could be, and Puck found a little comfort in that. She called him Puck, said Noah was "too traditional" and she liked the nickname better. She wasn't Jewish, which pissed his Ma off to no end. She was brunette, but her hair was a little too dark, and she was pretty but her nose was a little too small. Puck would never admit these things outloud, but it was something he noticed every now and again.

They started fighting six months into their marriage. She started working longer hours, he started going out to drink with his buddies instead of coming straight home. They fought about stupid shit at first, like why he didn't always take the garbage out on his own, or why did she always leave dirty dishes in the sink. But then, it got more serious. He would try to be playful with her and she'd push him away. Or he'd try to have sex with her and she'd make an excuse. That shit pissed him off to no end. Then the comments about his family and friends started. Her saying his Ma was annoying or Finn was stupid...that shit wasn't cool and sometimes he went off. Most of the time he chose to ignore her if she said something that pissed him off. He didn't want to be the asshole that couldn't make his marriage last a year.

He heard about Rachel sometimes from Finn or Santana. They were both close to her, Santana more than Finn, though he could never figure that shit out. He asked his friends to keep his marriage to themselves only because he didn't want Rachel finding out from someone else. He figured if she ever looked him up again he owed it to her to tell her everything himself. Eight months into his marriage he heard that she had broken up with her boyfriend, and had gotten a role in a Broadway show. He was proud of her, he wished he could call her and tell her how proud, but he didn't know if that would be inappropriate. Instead he sent a dozen roses to her anonymously after her first show. He even considered taking Maggie to see the show, but then realized how bad that could turn out. Maggie didn't like musicals anways. Puck wasn't sure why that pissed him off so much.

He had been married nine months when Rachel showed up at his door. The second he saw her, it was like the past five years hadnt happened. She had looked older, but was still the painfully beautiful woman she'd always been. She had been there less than an hour, and Puck was almost ready to give up everything if she wanted to be with him again. He realized after she left how selfish that would have been of him, and he was glad she had rushed out the way she did. That night when Maggie came home, he had practically begged her to fuck him, just needed to be close to someone. The whole time he thought about her too dark hair and her too small nose, how her body never quite fit his like someone else's had. He felt like an asshole immediately afterwards. He wasn't sure why and he didn't try to hard to figure it out.

The next couple months got a little better but only because Puck was actively trying to make them that way. He'd bring Maggie lunch on his days off and would stay awake til she got home when she worked late. Their one year anniversary came in January, Puck got her beautiful jewerly and they made love on their balcony under the stars.

He's walking to their apartment one day after getting off the subway, and sees Rachel's face plastered to the wall nearby. He knows that as long as he lives here he'll always be reminded that she does too. He thinks about it later, that maybe seeing her face that day was some sort of sign. He keeps his head down and walks by it, trying not to think about her and that night again. He knew it was unfair to his wife to think about her like that, so he just didn't. He wrote about her though, wrote songs about a pretty girl with stars in her eyes. Songs about love lost and heartbreak. Songs about wanting something you'll never have again. Maggie asks him to play them for her sometimes but he always refuses, tells her they aren't ready yet. He's not sure if he's writing songs to sing someday or just writing because it's the only way to say things he can't admit outloud.

Puck wraps his jacket around him tighter, cursing the cold weather and wishing it was summer already. He gets to their apartment quicker than usual, and all he wants to do is toe off his boots and take a long hot shower. His day was a bitch, and so was the artist he was working with. She had a smart ass comment about everything, and he considered quitting the gig altogether more than a few times that day. He has his hand on the door handle when he hears the noise inside. His heart is beating hard in his chest and at first he thinks maybe someone broke in, considering Maggie isn't due to come home for a few hours. Then he hears it again, and his knuckles turn white as he grips the knob. The distictive sound of Maggie's moan comes through the door and Puck knows that something bad is going to happen when he opens it.

Puck knows his hand is broken as soon as he hits the guy for the fifth time. Maggie stands back against the door screaming at him, sheet wrapped around her, but Puck barely acknowledges that she's there. He hits the guy at least four more times, finally relenting when his hand can't bear the pain anymore. He tells him to get the fuck out of his house then rounds on Maggie. She looks frightened but she should know better. Puck won't hit a woman, never has and never will. Instead he looks at her with tears stinging his eyes, and he's not sure how much is from the pain of his hand and how much is from her. He assumes it's about half and half. He shakes his head as she starts to cry, telling him she didn't mean to and it'll never happen again. He only speaks to her when she stops the hysterics and asks him to just say something. He does as he picks up his keys. He needs a beer and probably a doctor.

"Get the fuck out, don't be here when I come back."

A/N 2: Thanks for reading! Two chapters to go, and I promise they will be longer, I just needed to get this chapter out before we can get into the really good stuff! Next chapter will be up soon, maybe even tonight if I can get it perfect. Lots of P/R coming so be on the lookout!