The Disclaimer: I don't own Glee. Duh.
The Challenge: So this is my own person challenge, making one story fit the needs of two story challenges –kaycedilla2011's Knight in Shining Armor Challenge and .Pink.'s Baby Mama Drama Challenge. Wish me luck!
The Story Background: The roles are reversed – Quinn never slept with Puck and isn't pregnant. Rachel and Puck dated briefly, and one of the nights they got very drunk and had sex. Rachel was so disgusted with herself for giving in that she's refused to talk to Puck since.
When The World Comes Crashing Down
In the Third Person
Rachel runs her hand through her hair, pushing it up and over her head like she's putting it into a ponytail. It's a nervous habit, something she hardly ever does. But in this moment, she's grateful for it because the hair stays in place as she spins the dial on her locker. The door sticks a bit, but she pulls hard and it opens a moment later. She thanks her lucky stars that nothing fell out, eyeing her spare pencil case. The secret it held. She got queasy just thinking about it. She pushed it out of her mind, threw her history binder in and took out her chemistry folder, shoving it unceremoniously into her bag. Her eyes fall for a second on the calendar that she's posted on the inner side of the door. That Saturday, with a big blue circle around it and doctor's appointment scribbled across the bottom. Just looking at it made her stomach feel a bit warmer, a bit more present. It wasn't her normal yearly appointment with her pediatrician, but her first of a long series of appointments that in seven months would result in . . . she couldn't think about it. Not now. Not here. She slams the locker shut, and tries to spin the dial, but it sticks. She silently curses whichever Neanderthal owned the locker before her and messed it up so badly. She opens the door again and some of her magnets fall onto her. She hears a giggle behind her. Quinn. Burning with embarrassment, Rachel picks up the magnets, spelling them out in her hand. R-E-N-T, W-I-C-K-E-D. There, that was all of them. She sticks them back up and slams the locker shut. Thankfully, this time the lock spins easily and she rushes off to class.
Across the hallway, Jacob trips and his books come tumbling down. He scrambles to pick them up as a couple of jocks laugh. Tina, a girl he hardly knows but has seen many times before, bends down and hands him a pile of books. He thanks her as he stands up and quickly leaves, ducking into his classroom. As he settles into his back row seat, Jacob notices the pencil case on top of his pile of books. Tina must have accidentally given him her case. He picks it up, searching for some kind of clue as to when he can return it to her. A schedule or something, but the back pockets are empty. The bag is light in his hands, and there is only one object inside. It's the right weight and size for a marker. Why keep a bag for just one marker? He goes to unzip it before noticing a name scribbled beneath the zipper. Rachel Michele Berry. Intrigued even more – dirt on Rachel was worth a lot more than dirt on Tina – he unzips the bag and sticks his hand in, pulling out the wand. He holds it behind his pile of books so that no one will see whatever it is.
It takes him only a second to recognize the object. He's seen it a thousand times in commercials. "The most sophisticated piece of technology you will ever pee on". He remembers the advertisement all too well. The digital read out is simple, leaving no guess work for the avid blogger.
Rachel Berry, self-proclaimed McKinley High Queen of all that was musical theater, was pregnant.
--
The Next Day
"How dare you," Quinn growls, her voice low and menacing. Rachel braced herself for the onslaught, holding her books tight in her hands. Stay calm, she reminds herself, don't get upset. "How dare you flirt with my boyfriend you man-hands theater freak slut. Everyone knows what you are. You think you're so much better than everyone else, but really you're the lowest of the low. So stop flirting with Finn, because you don't have a chance." She ordered, pushing Rachel back with each word. "He. Is. MINE." Rachel feels her mind spin as she tries to come up with a cool, collected comeback. Too late, she realizes, it's her stomach that's spinning and not her brain. She knows running away will look cowardly but she'd much rather be thought a coward than throw up in front of the entire student body. (Although she does consider it for a moment - watching Quinn's face as the slimy puke covered her cheerios uniform would be amusing)
Rachel turns on the spot and runs into the closest bathroom. She pushes past a pile of jocks that includes Puck. He saw the whole thing, and like everybody else assumes that she's crying and upset by Quinn's words. It wouldn't be the first time. But unlike the others, he's actually talked to her. He knows that inside of her tough outer shell is a girl more vulnerable and self-conscious than any other girl he's ever met. While some of the jocks high-five Quinn he can't help but feel disgusted with himself. With them. How could he let them hurt her? They didn't know the first thing about her. What gave them the right to tease her, when she'd done nothing wrong?
"Hey Puck," Mike said, "didya see what Jacob wrote about Berry on his blog? I mean jeez, talk about a surprise-" He didn't know what made him do it, but suddenly Mike was in his hands, dangling an inch above the ground. He pushed Mike backwards and the heavy jock skidded onto his butt.
"Ow." Mike complains standing up. "What the fuck was that for, Puckerman?" But Puck's already turned around and walking the other way.
--
It doesn't take long until the school officers catch up with him. He is very quickly given a two day suspension and kicked out unceremoniously. Well, just fucking peachy he thinks. He can't go home. He can't let his mother now that he's been suspended for the second time this semester. But nowhere else in town is open. That was the problem with this stupid town. If you weren't in school there was absolutely nothing to do.
So he gets in his car and drives to the next parking lot over, a supermarket that really isn't all that super. A thin wood separates the store from the school. He gets out of the car and goes into the store, buys himself a lunch and eats it. He flips through the radio stations, but nothing good is on. He could do homework, but what was the point in it. So instead he chucks the remains of his potato chips into the trash and walks around the building and into the thin woods. If he can't go to school he can at least watch the sophomores and freshmen struggle through gym. That, at least, he can get a kick out of.
The trees line the football field and its circular track, coming up against the scoreboard that towers over the stadium. The kids are doing a running exercise – run the straights, walk the curves. That's what the teacher always told them. It was supposed to teach endurance and knowing how much is too much for your body. Puck can clearly remember running past everyone just because he could, and then getting yelled at by the teacher.
He watches the people going past, trying to recognize them. The first twelve people are unrecognizable. Then he spots one of the cheerios, not someone he knows by name, but still. Behind her are two girls, walking slower than the others. He recognizes the blue-streaked hair first, so distinctive. Then he sees Rachel's wavy brown hair, scooped into a ponytail. She's talking loudly, explaining some play called Hairspray to Tina, who looks bored as hell. Why can't Berry ever keep her mouth shut, he wonders.
The kids run around again. He watches some freshmen shove each other to keep from getting bored. The teacher calls out a time – two more minutes. Berry and Tina are last now, just reaching the curve. They'll never make it in time, he thinks.
Suddenly, a searing pain overwhelms Rachel. She doubles over, her arms hugging her stomach. It feels like a bad period cramp, only ten times worse. She cries out, and Tina comes to her side immediately. As Puck watches, Rachel begins to cry as Tina pleads with her to get up.
"I can't!" Rachel cries, "It hurts! It hurts!"
Puck's heart is beating faster than it ever has in his life. The girls aren't doing anything and the teacher hasn't noticed them. None of them have a cell phone on them, but he does. He immediately calls nine-one-one.
"911," a calm voices answers, and Puck wonders how anyone with a job like hers can be so calm, "what's your emergency?"
"My friend, she's in a lot of pain." He stutters a bit, cursing himself for being so goddamn nervous. "She's crying and she's clutching her stomach." He knows that he needs to get closer to her so that he can find out more to tell the operator. As he watches Rachel cries out again. Tina's face is pale with fright as she finally runs off to get the teacher. Fuck his suspension, Puck thinks, this is an emergency. He jumps the fence easily and runs over to Rachel who is sitting back on the springy pavement now, running her hands over her flat stomach while tears roll down her eyes.
"Puck!" she cries when she sees him, getting up. "Puck, what are you doing?"
"Sit down, Rachel." He orders, and she does. He notices that she doesn't seem like she's in pain anymore, which is odd, but he pushed it out of his mind.
"Where are you?" asks the operator.
"The track at McKinley High School." He tell her, bending over to sit down beside Rachel. As he does so he sees the shiny, thin red puddle where Rachel had fallen. Rachel sees it too, and bites her lip.
"I'm so scared." She cries, unable to think or focus. "The baby," she whispers. The word jolts Puck. What baby? Everything – the blood, Rachel's pain, the operator's voice, the gym teacher running towards them – it all leaves him with that one word. He doesn't realize that he has spoken aloud until Rachel responds, "yours." Before he can question her or comprehend what she's told him she cries out again, grabbing his arm. He drops the phone, the call still going, and tries to focus on the here and now. The here and now is that Rachel is in way too much pain, and she's bleeding and fuck, he thinks, she's pregnant. Bleeding down there, stomach pain. He can't figure out a way that it could end well for the baby or Rachel.
"What's wrong?" the gym teacher asks, kneeling beside Rachel. "What hurts?" Puck knows that she's in too much pain to respond so he does it for her.
"She's bleeding um . . . down there." He says, "and she's in a lot of pain."
"I've never seen cramps this bad," the teacher mutters. "Rachel hunny, let's go to the nurse." She says, standing up and extending a hand to Rachel.
"It's not my period," Rachel explains, her voice wavering. "I'm pregnant." She can't believe she's telling everyone this. She can't believe that Jacob told everyone on his blogs, but her gym teacher and Puck still didn't know. She watches as all the color leaves the teachers face.
"We need to call 911," the teacher says immediately.
"I already did," Puck announces, surprising Rachel. He hands his phone to the teacher, who begins to talk to the operator. Rachel looks back at the rest of her class. They're all watching her, curious.
Another pain wraps around her and she screams at the top of her lungs, unable to control herself. She needs to end the pain, to get rid of it and screaming is the only way she knows how. Her loud voice frightens Puck, but he stays by her. Halfway through her screams are mixed with big, sobbing tears and the loud siren sound as the white, boxy van enters the school parking lot, coming as close to the football field as it could before two doctors come out, then a third dragging a stretcher.
"Don't leave me!" Rachel cries, reaching out for Puck, who backed away to let the doctors get closer.
"I'm right here," he promises, "right here." He watches as the doctors start asking her questions and she answers them in tears. They poke her stomach, asks what hurts. He watches her, pale and small, as they load her onto the stretcher and strap her in for safety. When they wheel her away he runs after them.
"You can't come with us." One of the doctors tells him roughly.
"I – I-" he can't find a way to put it into words, all Puck knows is that he needs to be there with her.
"He's the baby's father." Rachel squeaks. The doctor admits that Puck can come if he can control himself, and he agrees to even though he doesn't think he can.
--
Puck holds himself and cries in the fluorescent waiting room. They're doing tests or something and he isn't allowed back. The weight of everything is coming down on him. It's made him realize how much he loves Rachel, despite her motor mouth. He watches as Rachel's fathers come into the waiting room too and start badgering a nurse. She tells them that they can't go back, but they won't listen. They yell and fight for almost ten minutes before a doctor comes in and talk to them. They finally quiet down. As Puck watches they come to sit across from him – one father crying, the other pale with shock.
"What's wrong?" Puck asks. Her father who isn't crying shakes his head, but the one who's in tears answers.
"She lost the baby."
And Puck's world comes crashing down.
A/N: Hope you liked it. Might write a second chapter.