Disclaimer: I don't own Glee. (But if I could make a suggestion: fire the writing staff or at the very least make sure to take all the drugs and alcohol out of the office! What are you people doing over there).

Summary: Set Junior year, post Finchel breakup. Finn finds out that Rachel and Puck are together. Light Pezberry friendship. ONE-SHOT

"She's coming around."

Rachel was certain that a moment ago she had been looking at Mr. Schuester. She's not sure what he was discussing, a persistent buzzing in her ears had made it impossible to focus on the choir director or the writing on the board, but she does know she was looking at her teacher. Now, instead of a sweater vest and curly gelled hair, she's staring at a water-stained ceiling. The edges around her vision are a bit blurry; her mind feels fuzzy and her head heavy. Then, as if someone had turned the volume up, panicked voices make their way into her ears and Mr. Schuester is back in her line of vision. He looks a bit paler than he did just a moment ago and his eyes look frightened.

Will Schuester had been writing down the theme of the week's assignment on the board when he heard a loud thump followed immediately by a cacophony of chairs scrapping the floor and eleven voices calling out the same name. He turned abruptly turns around to find Rachel on the floor lying on her side with left her arm outstretched; and, the rest his students on their feet, staring at her, all too shocked to move. Will dropped the marker and rushed to the petite brunette. He rolled Rachel onto her back; she's out cold. Their teacher's actions shook the kids out of their stupor. Soon ten bodies joined the choir director, desperate to know what's wrong with their teammate.

"Rachel? Rachel can you hear me?" Will Schuester understands that he needs to remain calm and composed. One of his student's collapsed during practice and he wants to freak out, but he is the grown-up. He's the only adult in the room, so he keeps his voice calm and his demeanor composed.

"Finn, go get the nurse."

Will's throwing out orders left and right. Telling his kids to back up, give her some air. They all do as told, except for Puck. He remains kneeling by Rachel's side. Mr. Schuester tells the boy to step back, but the teenager ignores him and laces his fingers around his not-so-secret-girlfriend's limp hand. Will decides to leave the boy alone, because he looks like he's ten seconds away from passing out himself and goes back to trying to rouse Rachel. Three minutes later, Rachel is still unconscious and Finn has yet to return with the nurse.

"Kurt, call 911." The thin teen dooes as told. He informs the operator that his friend passed out in class and that she hasn't woken up. The woman on the other side of the line lets the teenager know that an ambulance has been dispatched to the school and should arrive shortly. Kurt relays the message to Mr. Schuester.

"It looks like she's coming around," Puck announced. When Will looks down at her again he sees that Rachel's eyes are now open.

The blurry edges of her vision begin to blacken and expand. She wants the quiet to come back because she feel incredibly tired all of a sudden, however the volume has been amplified and it drives the haze out of her mind.

"Rachel?"

"Mr. Schuester?" There's a noticeable hint of anxiety in her voice.

"Oh thank God," the older man sighs in relief. When she tries to sit up, both Mr. Schuester and Puck gently, but assertively, hold her in place.

"Just relax for a second, Rachel, okay?" Rachel just nods and focuses on her boyfriend's scared green eyes. As the Mohawked boy occupies her attention, Will continues to check Rachel's pulse.

Finn returns to the choir room alone. "The nurse wasn't in her office, Mr. Schue."

"That's alright, Finn," he keeps his attention on his watch, trying to determine how fast Rachel's heart is beating. "She's awake. I want you to go out side and wait for the paramedics. Sam, go with him." The tall boy wants to make sure his ex-girlfriend is okay; he also wants to know why his former best friend looks so concerned about the welfare of said ex-girlfriend, but he decides the best thing he can do right now is follow Mr. Schuester's orders.

"Paramedics?" Rachel swiftly pushes herself up; she's on her feet before Puck or Mr. Schuester can stop her. Rachel wants to tell them that she's fine and that she doesn't need to go to the hospital, but her decision to stand up causes the blurry vision to return and her world to tilt. Puck is by her side in an instant, steadying her and tenderly easing her back to the floor.

"You're okay, Rach. Just lie down." There're the first words out of Puck's mouth. Like his teacher, Puck is also trying to keep his shit together. When he saw Rachel enter the choir room earlier he could sense something was off about her. He just couldn't put his finger on what was different about the brunette. The young man wanted to ask his girlfriend what as wrong, but his pride held him back; the couple had gotten into an argument during lunch and Puck refused cave and apologize. As Mr. Schuester went on ad nauseam about the power of friendship and how this week's assignment would require the club to split up into teams, Puck kept a close eye on the uncharacteristically quiet diva. From his position in the back it looked as if she was swaying in her seat. The little voice in his head was starting to run amok, yelling at him to do something; then the voice and his heart stopped when she crumpled to the floor.

"Noah?" His name on her lips brought his mind back to the present. "Noah, I don't need an ambulance."

Santana responds before he even has a chance to open his mouth, "Suck it up, RuPaul." The words are harsh, but the concern in her tone is unmistakable. The Latina is one of only four people who know about Puck and Rachel. A week into their relationship she unexpectedly showed up at Puck's house – Brittany had just told her that Artie wanted the blonde to meet his parents - and when she walked into his room she was greeted by the sight of a Rachel straddling her former bed buddy as his hands traveled up and down her plaid green skirt.

"I'm blind!" Santana had screeched the moment she recognized the owner of the outdated skirt. The two teens on the bed separated in a flash.

"Seriously, Puck? Man hands?" Rachel's blush intensified.

Puck came to her defense without hesitation. "Her name is Rachel, Satan. And if you want to stay in my house you better learn it, fast."

"Psh, whatever."

"No, not whatever." Santana crossed her arms. Her reaction resulted in a stare down. Although, Rachel was beyond thrilled that Puck stood up for her, the glare fest was very uncomfortable and Rachel contemplated whether or not jumping from the window would be a feasible escape plan. She concluded that a broken ankle would only make the moment worse.

"I'm serious, San. You better start directing your bitch somewhere else." The Latina conceded in her own way.

"Fine, but don't expect me to braid your hair or acknowledge you in public." The lovers knew it's the best they're going to get. Since then Santana had been relatively civil

Back in the McKinley choir room, two men wearing navy blue collard shirts and pants enter the room. The taller of the two paramedics with a small orange duffle bag in his grip is the first to reach Rachel.

"Hi, Rachel, my name's George and that's my partner Lucas."

"Hello." Although Finn and Sam already filled the two in, Mr. Schuester immediately begins to rattle off what happened and then offers up any and all information he thinks might help.

"It was nothing, really. I just got a little dizzy. They didn't have to call you."

"Well we're already here and we have all this equipment with us so why don't we just have a listen, just to be sure." He opens the pack and takes out an electronic heart monitor. After the cuff is wrapped around her arm, the EMT listens to her heart. His brow furrows and he asks his partner to take a listen, same reaction.

"What's wrong?" Kurt asked.

"Okay, Rachel, Lucas is gonna go bring the stretcher and we're going to take you to Lima General."

Santana starts demanding answers. "Why? What's wrong? Why did you make that face?" She's become rather attached to the midget. She'd hate for all the time and effort she put into tolerating Rachel to just go to waste.

"Her heartbeat is a little irregular." George wishes his partner was better at the whole tact and reassurance thing, but he gets that it's only the rookie's third week on the job. Before the skinny cheerleader can beat Lucas with a music stand, the more experienced paramedic steps in.

"I know it sounds scary, but arrhythmias are usually nothing to worry about, but she was unconscious for over four minutes so it's just a precaution." As he had advised, Rachel was loaded onto a stretcher, despite her protests.

"Let them do their job, Rach," Puck told her after she insisted that she was fully capable of walking to the ambulance. Although he wanted to accompany her on the ride over – it was now pretty obvious to everyone in the room that there was something going on between the former bully and target – it was ultimately Mr. Schuester who got the extra seat in the vehicle.

Once the ambulance was out of the parking lot, the New Directions went back to the choir room to grab their things so that they could drive over to Lima General.

Before Puck could head out the classroom door he was accosted by an angry looking Finn.

"You're a thing? You two are a thing?"

The tan boy rolled his eyes, "You're seriously bringing that up now?"

"What the hell!" Finn's voice boomed. "Why do you always go after my girlfriends?"

"It wasn't about you!"

"No! Of course it wasn't. It's about how many girls you can bed before we graduate high school. Tell me how long did you wait, huh?" Finn didn't give him a chance to answer. "I mean had we even broken up? Or did that not even matter?"

"I'm not doing this with you right now." Puck pushed passed the taller boy. He had more important things to do right now, mainly check if his girlfriend was dying or something. The distressed boyfriend found Santana, Brittany, and Artie waiting impatiently for him out in the hallway.

"Give me your keys," Santana held her hand out, "I'm driving."

It had been the arrhythmia's fault. That and stress. Rachel had been driving herself crazy these past few week preparing for her Julliard Summer School auditions as well as Nationals, the SATs, ACTs, and racking up volunteer hours at the animal shelter. The fight in the cafeteria probably hadn't helped, but the fainting spell had been a long time coming.

Rachel told Puck that he had done nothing wrong and that she was sorry for yelling at him. The doctor told her that she would be find so long as she stop pushing herself so hard and learn to relax. Her dads informed her that she was staying in bed for the next week. Rachel looked like she'd just been the victim of a VA funkafication. Her doctor laughed and said that they didn't need to be so drastic.

Puck was thrilled. His girlfriend was okay; he had won an argument – for once- and he no longer had to hide his relationship from Finn. So aside from the fact that he had probably lost ten years of his life after seeing Rachel passed out in the choir room, all in all, it was a good day.

Santana eventually kicked Puck out of Rachel's room after the doctor left, stating that she had private things to discuss. What that meant was that she needed to hug her friend and make sure that the brunette was one hundred percent okay; she had no intention of letting Puck see that.

Puck headed back out to the waiting room to inform the rest of the gleeks about Rachel. The relieved group got up to go check in on the diva before they all headed home. Puck decided not to tell them that Santana had specifically told him not to let anyone in the room on pain of death, but he figured exposing her human side to the rest of the team was decent payback for kicking him out of Rachel's room. Finn, who had been sporting an I-just-sucked-a-lemon face since Puck brushed him off in the choir room remained seated.

"Three days."

"What?" Puck took a seat next to his girlfriend's brooding ex.

"That's how long we waited: three days."

Finn scoffed, "Unbelievable."

Puck ran his hand through his hair trying to figure out how to say what he needed to say. "Look, I know I've been a shitty friend. A good friend would've waited longer than three days."

"A good friend wouldn't have gone after her at all."

"But," he continued as if Finn hadn't said anything, "me and Rachel? We're not about you."

"God you're a dick," Finn gave an angry chuckle.

"I'm sorry man, I really am, but it's true. What I have with Rachel. What I feel for Rachel, it's not about you. It's about us." Silence settled over the former friends. "And that's all I'm gonna say about it because I think my penis just shrank." Since Finn hadn't said anything, Puck decided it was a lost cause and made to return to the hospital room.

"Do you love her?" Finn's voice asked from behind him.

Puck smiled, "Yeah."

"Have you told her?"

"Yeah."

THE END