A/N: Hello! This is the second installment of that trilogy I'm working on. I recommend reading "It's not a promise, I'm just gonna call it" first just because this is completely different from the show. It's going to cover from Quinn's freshman year in college to her third year of residency (spanning a decade or so). It's gonna be a little different this time-each chapter will be told from a different character's point of view and they'll all sorta overlap, telling Quinn's story. Don't worry if you don't get some things...It'll make sense by the end of the story. And I'll point out the chronological order in the beginning.

Also, Angie is a character I made up in "It's not a promise." She was Quinn's therapist.

Enjoy!

Song - "Shadow Days" by John Mayer

[Quinn's senior year in college]

Puck (and little Beth)

Hard times have helped me see

I'm a good man with a good heart

Had a tough time, got a rough start

"How you doin?" Puck asks her cautiously, giving her a tight hug. He can barely hear her and he can't tell if it's because the damn train station is too loud or because she's talking so softly.

"I'm okay," Quinn tells him reassuringly. "How are you? And thanks for letting me stay on such short notice."

Puck shrugs.

"I've been great," He tells her, picking up her bags and walking. "And don't worry about it Q. I told you, anytime."

She nods, walking next to him.

He notices how tired she looks.

"Things haven't changed a bit," She observes.

Puck laughs, unlocking his truck.

"It's Lima," He comments. "I feel like this place ain't gonna change no matter what. Cars will be flying in Chicago and shit and we'll revert back to horses and buggies."

Quinn actually laughs and Puck feels better. Because who wants to go back to their hometown after being gone for 4 years for a funeral?

"Come on," Puck mutters as he puts the truck on drive. "Gotta show you the bachelor pad."

It's almost two in the morning when Quinn gets back from the funeral. Puck's been up worried that something happened to her. She insisted that he didn't need to come with and he respected that.

"Hey," He calls out from the balcony when he hears the front door open. That's how tiny his apartment is—he can hear everything from every point of the apartment.

"Hi," She tells him when she appears at the back door. He looks up and he can tell that she's been crying. Which is normal for funerals, he thinks to himself. But then again, these tears are pretty fresh.

Puck pats the floor next o him, motioning for her to sit. Quinn, still in her black dress, slowly lowers herself across from him. She takes off her shoes and leans her head on the wall.

"I think I saw Finn on the bus today," Quinn starts quietly. Puck nods.

"He came back from Afghanistan in the middle of the summer," Puck informs her.

"Oh, do you still have his number?"

"Yeah, why?" Puck asks, putting his guitar down. "You want it? I can give it to you later."

"Yeah," Quinn mumbles. "That'd be great."

They're quiet for a moment before Puck speaks again.

"So," He starts. "Tell me about her. About Angie."

Quinn is quiet for a while and Puck almost drops it. But then she speaks.

"The summer before our senior year, I was in a car accident," She tells him slowly. Puck frowns, because he never knew any of this.

"I was spiraling down, you know?" She continues. "My dad was still looming over my mom and I, my mom could barely get herself together, and everything I knew was just going to the shits. I was convinced that I was going to be nothing."

"So in a moment of temporary insanity, I hit a tree and got sent to the hospital."

She brings her legs close to her body and hugs them.

"I just needed one person to believe in me," Quinn muses. "And that was Angie. She got me back on track. Helped me get my mom back on track. Helped me get into college. Helped me believe in myself again."

"I just feel like I didn't thank her enough," She trails off.

Puck nods slowly.

"Sounds like she was an amazing woman," He says quietly.

"I wish could talk to her right now," Quinn starts again, leaning against her knees. "I just…Something reminded me of how terrible I was when we were in high school. Sometimes, you just can't run away from that stuff, you know? You've left a mark on people, a terrible mark, and you can't undo stuff like that."

She closes her eyes.

"And I'm scared of the day that Beth finds out that I was a horrible bitch in high school."

"Hey," Puck tells her with a head shake. "Don't think like that. We were young. And stupid. Heck, we're still young and stupid. But you were going through a lot of shit. A lot of shit."

He pauses.

"You have to forgive yourself for those things," Puck says. "You're not that person anymore. And that's all that Beth cares about."

Quinn looks like she doesn't believe him.

"Trust me," He tells her. "She was rattling five hundred words per second when I told her that we were coming to visit her tomorrow."

Quinn smiles.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Puck says quietly. He holds a hand out. "Come here. Let the Puckasaurus give you a hug."

Quinn rolls her eyes and moves over. She leans against him and he puts his arm around her.

"It'll be fine, Q," He tells her. "You have your big family backing you up. Besides, I was an even bigger asshole when we were in high school."

He feels Quinn shaking her head against him.

"Don't say that." Quinn says suddenly, pulling away. "You had a lot of things going on too."

Puck shrugs.

"Sure," He tells her. "Except I'm still here. Lima loser numero uno."

Quinn shakes her head.

"You were never a loser, Puck," She tells him.

Puck smiles slightly.

"You think so?"

"Oh yeah," Quinn reassures him. "Although I'm glad you got rid of that thing on your head."

"Hey! Don't diss the Mohawk!"

Quinn laughs and puts her hands up.

"It was time to retire it anyways," Puck tells her. He looks away. "I'm thinking of switchin careers, or something."

Quinn's face suddenly becomes serious.

"Really? What do you want to do?"

"Join the Cincinnati police department," He tells her. "Figured that I'd be good at catching troublemakers, seeing as I'm a retired one myself. And I'll still be close to Beth."

Quinn just watches him.

"Cept I'm probably not good enough."

"Don't think that," Quinn shakes her head. "You'd kick ass. You should do it."

Puck turns to look at her.

"Yeah?"

"Definitely! Promise me you'll look into it."

Puck nods after a while and Quinn leans back against him.

"I heard you got into that fancy medical school you wanted to go to in Chicago," Puck says after a while, a proud smile on his face.

Quinn smiles.

"Northwestern?" She clarifies. "Yeah. I'll be moving in with Santana and Sam next year. She's doing law at the University of Chicago. And Sam is teaching at a school in the suburbs."

"Well that's gonna be a shit show," Puck whistles.

"You should come visit us when you can," She muses.

Puck nods, thinking that through.

"I can do that," He says with a wink. "Dr. Fabray."

Quinn laughs and punches him lightly.

"Don't jinx it."

The next day, Puck finds himself being harassed to win a stuffed animal. He and Quinn drove over to Shelby's to visit Beth and now the three of them are at Chuck E. Cheese's, where six year old Beth is out on a mission to take Mr. Snuggles home.

"Lucy needs a friend!" Beth tells the two of them, referring to Lucy, her favorite teddy bear that Quinn got her years ago.

"We need, like, thousands of tickets princess," Puck tells her with a slight frown.

"Hmmph," Beth pouts.

Quinn laughs and Puck scratches his head. She nudges him.

"Oh come on Puckerman," She teases, walking towards the nearest game. She turns to Beth and winks. "Don't worry sweetie, I'll win it for you."

Beth smiles her kilowatt smile and claps.

Puck's mouth falls open. He catches up to her.

"Bring it, Q," He mumbles, turning slightly and holding his hand out for Beth. "Come on, Princess. Watch me win you that bear."

Beth laughs and runs up to the two of them.

When they get back to Shelby's, Beth can barely walk through the front door with two bears in tow.

Quinn meets Finn for coffee or something the day before she heads back to OSU. When she comes back, Finn is trailing behind her with a six pack and a Super Troopers DVD.

"Oh man," Puck calls out. "That movie's the bomb."

He straightens up and pretends to be a cop while Finn uncaps a beer and hands it to Quinn.

"Alright meow," He starts quoting the movie. "Hand over your license and registration."

"Do I look like a cat to you?" Finn joins in. "Am I drinking milk from a saucer?"

Quinn starts laughing and almost spits out her beer.

"We could be great together, ya know," He says with a wink, finishing off his beer. Finn went home an hour ago and the two of them are out on the balcony.

Quinn rolls her eyes.

"We were great together," She reminds him. "I mean, just look at Beth."

Puck laughs.

"I talked to a police recruiter," He says quietly. When he looks up, Quinn is looking at him.

"Really?"

"Yessum," He tells her as he reaches for two beers in the cooler. "I'm doin' it."

Quinn smiles.

"Sounds great, Puck."

"Let's celebrate then!"

He uncaps two more bottles and hands one to Quinn. Quinn looks at him with one eyebrow raised and Puck just looses it.

"The last time I accepted an alcoholic drink from you…" Quinn trails off.

He laughs even harder, shaking his head at her as she takes the beer he's offering her.

"Hey," Quinn starts, looking at him. "No regrets, right?"

Puck just looks at her before smiling and nodding. "None at all."

"To our little princess," He muses. Quinn echoes his sentiments, clinking her bottle against his.

He smiles at her. Because she might not be the love of his life but he'll always love her. Plus, they have a kid together. And that's a pretty deep bond right there.

Years down the road, when their little princess is not so little at eighteen, Puck laughs when he hears Beth's booming voice from down the hall.

"Good thing it takes an entire village to move me in."

"Beth—"

"We obviously want to embarrass you," Puck jokes as he stops in front of the doorway to Beth's dorm room. "Wow. You're gonna be living in a shoe box kiddo."

He drops the boxes to where Shelby directs him to and dusts his hands.

Beth laughs.

"I swear, these rooms got even smaller from when I was here," Quinn mumbles as she struggles with the bags she's carrying. "You would think that at some point, OSU would have realized that cramming college freshmen into prison cells doesn't exactly inspire confidence."

"I'm pretty sure we're breaking some fire code right now," Beth quips, taking some of the bags from Quinn's hands. "Thanks, Q."

Puck looks around the cinder block room and whistles. He leans against the door frame. While Beth and Shelby argue about where the bed sheets are ("I put it in your duffel bag," "I don't see it.") and who packed it in the first place ("Mom, are you sure you took it out of the wash?" "Yes. I told you a million times and you didn't do it. So I did.") and how there really is no need to put the bed together now ("It's not like I'm gonna go to sleep right now."), Puck's eyes land on Quinn, who is staring at the pictures that Beth already put up while they were getting the rest of her things from the car. He watches as Quinn reaches over to touch an old picture—one of her and Puck and baby Beth playing at Shelby's backyard.

And he smiles, remembering Quinn's words all those years ago.

No regrets.

This is his family—well, at least a portion of it that they can fit into that truck and into this dorm room—and everything he's done, including the screw ups he's had in his life, has led him here.