Everyone was waiting for their cue to take the stage. It would be their moment of truth. Could William McKinley's Glee Club take the national title?
They had practiced all three of their numbers for hours a day for months. The choreography was flawless and the notes were precise. So why was the member who wanted the win the most missing?
The majority were too afraid to go find her, fearing she had relapsed into one of her classic diva fits. Those who considered her a friend assumed she would appear, probably having made a last minute trip to the bathroom. Only one person was willing to go look for her. Unlike the others, he knew they would lose without her vocal power.
Puck took off from the backstage area. He checked rooms left and right, at one point catching an unwanted glimpse of Nazareth's male members changing out of their costumes. As he was about to assume the worst that Rachel had left, he heard her voice echoing down a deserted corridor.
"You know New York. You need New York. You know you need unique New York." She chanted at a rapid pace. She paced the dim hallway, repeating the mantra over and over.
Puck approached slowly. "Rachel?"
She stopped mid-chant, startled at the sudden interruption.
"What are you doing down here? We're on in minutes!" His voice sounded almost panicked as he finished.
"Oh my!" she gasped. "I just snuck away to calm my nerves. I didn't realize…"
"Wait a minute, Rachel Berry is nervous?" He gaped in disbelief.
She hung her head in shame. "There's a lot riding on our performance today. I'm really not sure I'm good enough."
"Did Kurt and Mercedes say something to you again?" He inquired angrily.
She shook her head no.
"Santana? Quinn? Finn?" He felt himself getting heated at the mention of his former best friend.
"No, no one said anything."
"Then what is it?"
"Admission officers from Julliard and NYU are in the audience, this performance is a shot for them to notice me. But what if I mess up?"
"That's not gonna happen." He placed his hands on her shoulders to still her frantic pacing.
"How do you know?" She met his calming gaze with distress evident in her eyes.
"Because I'm your male lead now, and there's no way I'll make you look bad. Don't you trust me, Rachel?" He did his best to express his emotion through his soft hazel eyes.
Rachel felt a rush of calm wash over her. In her panic she had nearly forgotten that Finn's voice hadn't been the same since he had his tonsils out after Regionals. Puck had stepped up in Glee's state of panic and offered to take over.
"You've been there for me through it all. There's no way in hell I'm letting you down."
Rachel smiled. "Then I guess we better get out there and show them what we got!"
They reached the stage right as the club was ushered on. Taking their position in the group formation, Puck whispered in her ear, "Unique New York needs you, not the other way around."
After an effortless three number performance, McKinley High took second place. It was a well-accepted defeat to the impeccable twenty-four member ensemble from Idaho.
It was no surprise when Rachel was approached by the NYU admissions officer. However everyone did a double-take when Puck was gestured over to join in the conversation. The officer said both of them would be a perfect fit to their school of music then took off, leaving his business card in Puck's hand to set up an appointment.
Four years later Puck made the long trudge up the stairs to the fourth floor apartment he shared with Rachel in New York City. They had been together for nearly five years. It didn't take them long to start dating after nationals. They actually fell right into it. Being a couple just came naturally to them. Of course they fought every other day over stupid things like his habit of drinking orange juice out of the carton or her leaving dirty dishes in the sink without rinsing them off, but they never went to bed angry even it met staying up all night to work the issue out. That happened twice, once when the electric got shut off because Puck accidently threw the bill out with the junk mail and the other was the pregnancy scare two years ago. It was an ugly fight, but they got past it and learned to be a lot more careful.
He set his heavy backpack and guitar case next to the door. Being a double major in music and business management gave him quite the workload. He called out to the dim apartment when he wasn't instantly greeted. "Babe? I'm home!"
"I'm in the bedroom," came her soft reply.
Puck smirked thinking he was getting lucky tonight. Opening the door he wasn't greeted with the sight of candles and sexy negligee, but instead Rachel was sitting on the bed cross-legged in yoga pants and his old football jersey. She was passing a small black velvet box between her palms.
Puck instantly went into panic mode. He couldn't figure out how she even found it, but then again this was Rachel Berry.
"I decided to finally organize and put away that pile of clothes you had neatly stacked on the floor in the closet. I found this," she held up the box, "in between a pair of khakis and a flannel shirt. I haven't opened it." She gave him a weak smile hoping to calm his nerves.
Puck ran his hands over his shaved head and let out a sigh as he sat on the bed. "You couldn't just put it back and pretend like you never saw it?" He took it from her hands with a grin on his face. "I have big plans for this baby."
Rachel's eyes got huge with surprise.
"Don't look so shocked, Berry. You seriously thought that after almost five years I was gonna let you get away?"
The only reaction Rachel could come up with was to grab him and pull him close for a searing kiss. They never left the bedroom that night.
He kept Rachel in suspense for six months. Their graduation from NYU was a huge celebration but no ring was presented. Their five year anniversary was a romantic dinner followed by a viewing of RENT front row center but still no proposal. He carted her off to the Hamptons for Labor Day Weekend, but a close inspection of his belongings proved that he left the ring at home. After that she gave up, thinking they weren't going to get engaged for awhile yet. Puck couldn't be more thrilled with her defeat. He had her right where he wanted her.
For Thanksgiving they flew home to Lima like always for a family dinner with her dads and his mom and sister. This year the holiday also happened to be Rachel's twenty-third birthday.
They went around the table to say what they were thankful for like every year. Puck shook things up by getting down on one knee and pulling the ring box out of his pants pocket. He told Rachel how thankful he was to have her in his life and how lucky he was that she loved him. He asked her to do him the honor of being his wife.
She choked out a "yes" between sobs of happiness. She couldn't have been more surprised.
The wedding was a small event. They chose to be married barefoot on the beach; of course Hawaii was the only logical choice for the destination.
The location they chose had a two year wait, but the couple didn't care. Their wedding would be perfect surrounded by the luscious scenery of rich greens, bright hues of yellow, orange and pink and an abundance of rich silvery blue.
The designers of her dress were thrilled with the length of time they had to create the work of art they had been planning since senior year of high school. Rachel would settle for nothing less than a Mercurtarina original, a company named after its owners, Mercedes, Kurt, Artie and Tina. The four best friends combined their different talents; giving birth to the successful fashion label ran from Los Angeles.
To say Rachel looked absolutely breath-taking as she walked down the aisle escorted by both her fathers would be an understatement. To Noah, there were no words to describe the radiant beauty decorated in white floating towards him. He still couldn't figure out how he got through the ceremony without error.
On a cliff over-looking the ocean, they exchanged "I Do's" in front of their closest friends and family. They were finally Mr. and Mrs. Puckerman. All of their guests were thrilled to witness it.
One year later they welcomed their daughters into the world. Caroline Brielle and Ariella Bess made a dramatic entrance. Both wailed their greetings, proving they had their mother's set of lungs.
Noah couldn't be more amazed by his three girls; he wasn't even worried that he would be sorely out-numbered in their household. Rachel had done beautifully, and his two new angels, Carly and Ella, had their daddy wrapped around their tiny perfect fingers already. Being only minutes old, they already had him attending to their every need.
He vowed to Rachel that the twins would not date until they were at least thirty, thirty-five if he could help it. She laughed and rolled her eyes, not bothering to bring up the fact that they fell in love at seventeen.
Looking down at his daughters in his arms while Rachel acquired some much deserved sleep after sixteen hours of labor, he could tell that Caroline would be the spitting image of her mother except she had his nose like her sister. Ariella would be the perfect mixture of both her parents: hazel eyes, chestnut hair, rosy cheeks and the Puckerman smirk. He couldn't fathom how he had a part in creating the adorable baby girls staring up at him.
Now five years later, Rachel was pregnant with their fourth child, another girl to be named Bethany Simone. Their son Issac "Zac" Elijah was not thrilled to be getting another sister and made his disappointment known by refusing to speak to his parents except when he needed something, which seemed to be every five minutes. Carly and Ella were thrilled to have a girl to dress up in their princess costumes since Zac refused to wear the pink sparkly number they had selected for him. A worried Noah went out and bought his son a football, tool kit and remote control car as soon as he heard the girls complaining to Rachel. He would not have his bad-ass in training be influenced by his double trouble sisters. Rachel nearly died from laughter when he walked in with the toy store bags and sheepishly produced the "boy-friendly" toys for their son and two new dolls for the girls.
The Puckerman's were a happy little family living in their five-bedroom home in Bedford, New York. Noah started and ran a successful music label. Rachel found her niche composing songs for the label and being a stay-at-home mom. Her dreams of Broadway stardom had been accomplished long ago when she starred as Maria in West Side Story for six weeks. It was all due to what Noah had said to her on stage during Nationals. She never needed unique New York. All she needed to be happy was the love of her life and her children.