You guys all hate me, I know! I haven't even finished my other Puckleberry story and here I am, starting a new one! Long story short, graduating school, work and everything else got in the way and my laptop is being horrible and won't do much. So I've got a new laptop, and while I'm trying to get my other story back, I'm starting this one! I really think it's got potential, and I'm thinking of making it about ten chapters. So enjoy!
*Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or anything associated with it.*
Looking back on her life, Rachel Berry never expected this is where she would be six years from her senior year. There was no denying she had changed; she wasn't the same determined, independent girl from all that time ago. She wasn't anything like that girl anymore.
As soon as she graduated, she was out of Lima headed for New York. She never wanted to go back there; high school had been rough and her fathers had been the only ones to support her. But she had so many great memories with the glee club to remember, and she promised herself if there was anything she wouldn't forget, it would be their worthy first place win at Nationals in her senior year. They had all treasured that first place trophy, and it sat in the prime position in the glee club trophy cabinet.
Rachel reminisced on her past quite often. She would take out the photos and the memories came flashing back to her. She loved sharing it with her daughter, laying out the photo albums as she flicked through the pages slowly. Her one year old little girl, Briella, was almost a spitting image of her mother, but with her father's blonde hair and blue eyes. She definitely hadn't been planned, but it didn't mean she was any less wanted by her parents. Well, her mother, at least. The little girl would blubber and talk in what sounded like gibberish to her mother as she laid her hands over the photos, pointing to a young Rachel in a couple of the pictures. Rachel would just giggle at the girl, pecking her forehead and nodding, telling the girl that it in fact was her momma. There was no doubt that Rachel adored Briella; she had to adjust so quickly to motherhood, dropping everything else in her life to take care of her baby. But she wouldn't change a thing.
She hadn't exactly been so successful in New York in the first place, so she tried to remember and keep in the mind that she hadn't lost a whole lot. She had rented a small one bedroom apartment on the outskirts of the city, and tried her luck at some small Broadway shows. But with no luck over and over again, she decided she was obviously searching in the wrong places. She didn't want to give up, but being turned down so frequently was starting to take its toll on Rachel. It was then she realized she wasn't the only Rachel Berry in New York. This was the city of Broadway dreams, and she wasn't the only talented girl to want a role in the most popular of theatre shows. With all the auditions and rehearsing and call-backs with no set in stone roles coming out of all this wasted time, the brunette was running out of money and determination. So she used the last of her savings and enrolled into NYADA (which she regretted enrolling in when she first got to New York) and to her surprise, she got in. It hardly made a difference to her lack of success, instead just putting her in debt. When she was about to hit rock bottom, she met her now husband and the father of her child, Caleb. They met at NYADA, Caleb studying to be a director. His blonde hair was short but styled; he was tall and skinny, with blue eyes and a dazzling smile. He swept her off her feet, and before she even had time to think, they were married. She loved him, she really did, but it had all happened so fast, she had no time to wonder if she was rushing into things. She had married when she was only 21, only just legal to drink alcohol, and she had made such a big step by getting married. She couldn't complain, he treated her well, got her everything she wanted. That was until two years later, she became pregnant. It was a shock to the both of them, but Rachel was happy. Caleb got a job offer not too long later in North Carolina in Charlotte, and Rachel decided it would be best to bring their child up in a town that wasn't such a big bustling city like New York. As much as it pained her to leave New York, it's what she had to do for her family.
But once they moved, everything changed. They had only just settled into their new home when Caleb changed. His once soft, sweet and charming personality disappeared. He became arrogant and self-centred; he would come home late from work every single night, his only reply to Rachel a grunt, as he threw down his food she had cooked for him before going to bed. It happened almost every single day until the last month of Rachel's pregnancy. She had no time for rest; Caleb was always out and she was the one to clean the house, cook meals, do the chores and run errands. By the end of her pregnancy, she was absolutely exhausted. She wasn't at all glowing, but instead just wanted to constantly sleep. But she had no time to do that; Caleb expected dinner once he arrived home, and the house to be clean. It wasn't easy, but Rachel coped. She couldn't leave him, not now. She was pregnant with his child and she couldn't put him in that position, no matter how much he was hurting her right now. She assumed he was cheating, all the late nights, the exhaustion and the quietness from him basically confirmed it. But she couldn't leave him. So she stayed put, right up until their daughter was born, hoping he would change once he saw his little girl for the first time.
She wanted to get out, she really did. But long story short, she didn't. So here she was, on a cold, November night, flicking through the pages of the photo album from her senior year, her daughter making baby noises as she played with the pages. Rachel ran her hand over the baby's head softly, before placing a peck on her forehead. She took the book from the girl carefully as she saw her yawn, knowing it was her bedtime. She placed the book on the bedside table and picked the girl up, holding her securely in her arms as she carried her to her crib, tucking her in.
"Goodnight, sweetie. Mommy loves you."
Running her hand over the baby's soft head, she left the room and turned the light off, looking back at the already sleeping girl. This little girl meant so much to her, and she wasn't going to lose her. Once Briella was born, Rachel realized that Caleb wasn't exactly the fathering type. Sure, on the odd occasion when he did pay attention to the little girl, she could tell that the little girl loved him, but he just didn't want to be a daddy to her. And it made Rachel's heart ache to see her daughter, their daughter, neglected by him. It's not how she pictured their family to be.
That night when she went to bed, she thought back on her life prior to this one. Right back to high school, to her family and glee club. She wondered how her dads were doing; it had been so long since she had been in contact with them. And the glee club, she wondered how each and every one of her old peers was doing. She knew in her heart that every one of them deserved to be happy, and deserved to be successful. Rachel knew they all had the potential to go somewhere in life, but whether or not they saw that was a different story.
It was then when she was just drifting off to sleep that the phone call came. She picked up her phone groggily, muttering a "hello" as she yawned. The man on the other line, her dad, was frantic, rambling a whole lot of words that she could hardly understand. It wasn't until she heard 'your daddy', 'car accident' and 'he doesn't have much time left, Rach' that she realized this was serious. She could hear her dad crying on the other end, which only made the tears run down Rachel's cheeks a whole lot more. It was no surprise that Caleb still wasn't home from 'work'; she was a little relieved that he didn't see her like this. In that moment as she hung up on her dad, she knew that she needed to get back to Lima.
The intenseness of Puck's night hit him as the sun blasted through the windows, forcing him to close his eyes immediately after opening them. Groaning, he rolled over, opening his eyes to find the obvious reason he felt like shit. It was her.
"Fuck." He mumbled to himself as he quietly but swiftly rose from the bed, pulling on his pants from where they were strewn over the room last night with the rest of his clothes. Once he was fully clothed, he checked he had everything and he was out of there. Driving down the streets of Lima back to his apartment, he cursed as he thought about what had just happened. He had slept with Lucy. He had just got rid of the psycho bitch that controlled his every move, and now here he was, doing the walk of shame back into his two bedroom apartment after he got so drunk off his arse the night before that he couldn't even remember fucking her.
Life for Puck since high school had been crazy to say the least. He always told himself he would get out of this shitty town for good, make something of his life. And it wasn't for a lack of trying. He left after high school to try his luck in LA, see what his music talent could do for him. He got himself a record deal at a small label, but his reputation got him into too much trouble in the end, and after a couple of years, the label dropped him, saying he needed a 'break' from music and fame. A year later and he was living in Lima (housing in LA was expensive when you had a crappy job) still on his so called break from music. The label had basically screwed him over as soon as his contract ran out. He wasn't 'celebrity material' according to the company. He told them to screw it and left LA, moving back to Lima, much to his displeasure. But it was cheap and easy enough to get a job, so he knew he would have to settle for at least a couple of months, which turned into a year.
Lima is where he met Lucy, a couple of months after settling back into the shitty town. He hadn't had sex in months, and he was a sex shark. You could say it helped him function; he could hardly think straight if he hadn't gotten any. He met her at the local community college; she was studying teaching and he was studying fitness. She was good for sex, he wasn't going to lie. And then they were kind of sort of casually dating, and Puck didn't complain since the sex was pretty much a regular thing. And then she fell in love and he had to get out of the relationship. He was fucked up; he didn't want any girls falling in love with him. He could hardly keep it in his pants, so how was he going to go tied down? Not only that, but she was controlling. She needed to know what he was doing every second of every day. As far as he was concerned, he was doing her a favour. But instead, she yelled and screamed, threw a couple of things at him as he cursed at her and got the fuck out of that crazy psycho's apartment.
Going back there was a mistake, and he knew it. He could hardly remember the night before, which was probably a fucking good thing in this case. Flopping down on the couch, he could smell something in the kitchen. And if he wasn't mistaken, it smelt exactly like his mom's scrambled eggs. How the fuck does she even have a key? He thought to himself as he raised an eyebrow at the Jewish woman behind the stove after he entered the kitchen.
"What the fuck, ma? You can't just come into my house like a crazy and make breakfast!" He shook his head frustratingly, as his mother just sighed at his cursing.
"Noah, I'm making you breakfast. You could at least thank me." Puck scoffed as he sat on the bar stool in front of the counter. "Seriously. I don't give a flying fuck if you're making me breakfast, this is my apartment."
Maria Puckerman had always loved her son, and supported him in everything he did. But all she ever wanted for her son was for him to be happy. But she could see it in his eyes that he wasn't happy. He hadn't been happy for a long time. But that was beside the point; she knew this Lucy girl was no good for her son. She wanted him to date a nice Jewish girl, was that too much to ask? Which brought her back to why she was actually at his house. She had found out about Rachel Berry's father; the Jewish community was a very tight nit group, and she knew Puck used to be friends with the Berry girl, so he of course had a right to know. She may have had other reasons for mentioning Rachel Berry to her son, but she wasn't going to go there.
"Noah, please. Hush. I'm here for a perfectly good reason. There's been an accident." Puck's heart skipped a beat when he heard the word 'accident'. Fuck. He had no idea what the fuck his mother was on about, but he was certainly now listening.
"Ma… you're shitting me, right? What the fuck is going on?" Maria could hear the concern in her son's voice. "Noah, do you remember Rachel Berry? Well her father was in an accident."
"Shit." That was all that came out of Puck's mouth as he sat in silence. Fuck, he knew how close Rachel had been to her fathers. Sure, she was annoying as hell and she never stopped talking, but no one deserved that.
Maria sighed. She could see the concern in Puck's eyes. His lack of gestures and talking said it all. "He doesn't have much time left. Noah, her other father asked if I could take her in and give her a place to stay while she's here. He's spending most of the time at the hospital and he doesn't want Rachel alone in their home. So I offered for her to stay with you."
Shit. How could his mother do that? She was fucking devious, that's all he knew. Sure, he felt for Berry, but how could he survive living with her? "Fuck. Are you for real?" He sighed a little, before running his hand over his head. "Fine. But this will be for a week, max. I can't live with Rachel fucking Berry, ma! I have my own life."
Maria Puckerman only smiled smugly at her son as she served him the scrambled eggs, before kissing him on the forehead and exiting his apartment. She knew it was wrong of her to use Rachel's misfortune to get them together, but ever since senior year, she knew those two belonged together. She didn't actually know anything about Rachel's current status, but she knew a week of those two living together would only make them realize how much those two matched.
So there you go! Should I continue? Review and let me know what you think, and I PROMISE my other story will be updated as soon as I get my old laptop up and running!