Sanctuary

Summary: What happens when Rachel's sanctuary becomes her personal purgatory?

Rating: M for content and language

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Personal Note: This is my first Glee fanfic so please let me know what you think, both good and bad.

*****Chapter 1************************************************************

I swear everything with that girl is one step forward and two steps back, thought Puck as he made his way to the auditorium and the solitude it promised.It was dark with only a single stage work light on. Why does she keep picking Finn? The guy is a dimwit. What does see in him and not in me? I thought that maybe just for a second she would pick me when she told me how romantic and shit I was and more important that I wasn't a Lima Loser.

At least hanging out with Berry taught me how to use the light board. She isn't quite as bat shit crazy as I thought, but she is still full on weird. I mean those short skirts; does she know what those do to a guy? Puck continued his mental tirade as he walked across the stage and turned on the house lights. And those big brown eyes, oh hell, Puckerman, STOP, she's just another girl who picked Finn over you. Stupid cougars are so much easier to handle… Suddenly he heard a strange sound near the upstage curtains. The sound was something between a whimper and a moan.

"Who's there?" He noticed Rachel's pink backpack then and what looked like a movement in the curtains heaped on the floor.

"Berry, are you in here?" he demanded in the surliest tone he could. Puck was starting to get a rush of adrenalin, like when you're watching a horror flick and you just know that stupid Cheerio should not have gone into the woods by herself.

Then he spotted her… "Oh shit, Rachel."

Her left eye was turning black and blue, her lip was split and there was a cut below her left cheekbone. That was just her face; the white shirt she had worn was missing buttons and had been torn open and her bra was pushed up around her neck. That ridiculous short pink plaid skirt was shoved around her waist. In the spilt second that he took in the bruises covering her body, he also saw the fabric burn marks where her underwear had been torn off, and what looked like blood on her inner thigh.

But it was her eyes that caught him the most. They were huge with fear, and he wasn't sure she was actually seeing him as she whimpered and tried to cover herself.

"Rachel, it's me, Noah." He started toward her using the gentlest tones he could. He kept his eyes locked with hers as he slowly moved toward her while grabbing a cloth drop sheet he found.

"I'm going to put this around you," he continued softly as he made his way to her, like she was a wild deer about to bolt, never looking away from her huge haunted eyes.

"Rachel, it's OK, I'm not going to hurt you. It's me, Noah. I'm not going to hurt you." he continued as he slowly and gently wrapped her in the drop cloth.

"Rachel, I think we should go see my mom. She's a nurse, she can help you." Puck just kept talking not sure if Rachel was hearing him or not.

"Rachel, I'm going to pick you up and take you to my truck." She didn't acknowledge him but he felt her whole body flinch when he put his arms around her and cradled her to his chest.

Puck made it to his truck without seeing anyone, which was good because he didn't know what he would have said if anyone asked what had happened. After he put her in the truck, and wrapped the seat belt around her, he walked around to the back and pulled out his cell phone.

"Hello."

"Mom…"

"Noah, is something wrong? You know I can't talk when I'm working in emergency."

"Mom, I need your help."

"Noah, are you OK? Are you hurt?"

"No, but my friend is hurt. I…I think she was raped."

"Where are you?" Her voice had taken on her no-nonsense nurse tune.

"I'm at school; I just put her in my truck. I was going to come to you."

"Did she change her clothes or take a shower?"

"No…Mom, I found her on the stage, she's not talking and she is ALWAYS talking. I wanted to get her out of there, so I just wrapped a sheet around her and picked her up."

"Noah, you did good, but she needs you to stay calm now and bring her here."

"Will you wait for us?"

"Yes, I'll have a doctor with me and we'll take her straight into a room."

"Thanks Mom…I love you."

"I love you too, drive safe."

Puck jumped into the truck and pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward Lima General. The silence in the truck was too much for him. His emotions were all over the place. Blinding rage that someone would do this to Rachel. Even if she was a Gleek and pushy know-it-all, no girl deserved this. Fear, because she still hadn't said anything yet and Berry's silence was just wrong in a way he couldn't even explain. Protectiveness, part of him just wanted to hold her and make everything all right. So he started to sing "Sweet Caroline," softly, more like a lullaby than he had in Glee. He placed his right palm open on the seat between them and felt his chest relax just a fraction as Rachel reached out and threaded her fingers in his.