A/N: Okay this is my first puckleberry, up till a few months ago I was a finchel shipper but honestly I hate finn now. So thanks to my best friend she converted me to a puckleberry shipper. And since then I've wrote like four fics and all of those will be up soon once I get them edited. So please let me know what you think! I'm really nervous to be journeying into puckleberry fics, there are some amazing writers! Also the song used in this is Let's take a drive by the amazing Christian Kane Who is a singer and a actor (Leverage). You can hear the song here, http:/ www. youtube. com/ watch?v= J8_LmuLMJWg (take the spaces out) . Also there's a little bit of Quill in it just giving a warning since some people don't agree with this couple. :D
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, if I did well most of S2 wouldn't of happened lol
Noah 'Puck' Puckerman walked into the all ages night club that was opening in a few days. He made his way through the doors with his guitar slung across his back and seen Quinn Fabray sitting at the bar with a lot of paper's scattered across the surface.
"Boo!" He said walking up behind her.
"Damnit Puckerman! Don't do that!" She said hitting him on the shoulder as she turned around then giving him a hug.
"So this is the place you've been talking about for years?" He asked looking around the bar and noticed the large stage in the center and then he looked up at the second story and seen a recording booth and some dance studios.
"It is, just took me ten years to get here."
"Now that your just twenty-four hours away from opening it. Are you scared?"
"Shitless. This has been a dream for so long, when I came home from New York after gradation ten years ago. It felt right that this place needed to be built. There's so much talent in the town and it just gets crushed."
"Well you're going to do amazing Fabray."
"It's Shuster now." She said holding her hand up to show her rings.
"I know I was the best man remember."
"I remember, I remember you trying to sleep with majority of the bridal party." She said with a laugh as she pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to him. "This is the vip list thingy."
"Thingy? You're so technical these days."
"Shut it. Just look it over and see if there's any one you want to invite." He scans the list when a name caught his eye, Rachel Berry, the one that got away.
"Berry's coming?"
"Well I invited her but I doubt she'll come." Quinn said with a small sad smile.
"What? The Berry I knew would jump at a chance to be part of a place like this."
"That's jus it Puck, the Berry you know is gone. She became a Hudson and became the typical Lima trophy wife. Finn went off to OSU while Rach stayed in Lima working to afford their house and then the minute he graduated she quit her job and became a twenty-four seven housewife. She gave it all up Puck, Julliard, New York, and Broadway. She gave it all up for him." He closed his eyes for a minute letting what Quinn was saying sink in.
"Is she happy?" he asked.
"For a while I think she was but then a few months back Finn packed his bags and left, leaving her with nothing. No job and a lot of bills. She found a part time waitressing job but that's it she's barely making ends meet."
"What diner does she work at?"
"Puck I don't think that's a good idea."
"I just want to see her Q, please what diner?"
"Cricket's but Puck I'm telling you she's not the girl you knew and she's been though hell."
"I got it; I'm going to do anything I promise. Scouts honor." He said holding up his hand.
"Wrong hand." She said with a smirk as she turned back to her papers, secretly hoping that Noah Puckerman would bring Rachel Berry back to them all.
A few minutes later he found himself setting in the small café with his sunglasses on hoping no one would recognize him. Since his fifth album had went triple platinum earlier that year it had been harder for him to go out places and not be mobbed by fans. But he was hoping Lima would be different and so far it was. He took a table close to the back of the café and he could see Rachel behind the counter, looking way older then she should. His heart broke at the lost look in her eyes, he wanted to track Hudson down and beat his ass for causing Berry all this hurt. He saw her start making her way toward his table so he put his menu in front of his face so she wouldn't recognize him and turn and run the other way.
"Can I take your order...Puck?" She asked shocked as he put the menu down.
"Not my name." He said beginning to realize Quinn wasn't execrating.
"Yes it is." He gave her a sad smile before he took his sunglasses off.
"No it's not. It's Noah something you wouldn't let me forgot in high school."
"Yes, well I was a naive little girl in high school. I've changed."
"I've noticed. Have a seat let's catch up."
"I can't I'm working." She said glancing back to where her boss was checking a customer out.
"Fine then will you agree to meet up with me after work? Please Rach, I just wanna talk. And if you stand me up I'll just hunt you down again."
"Fine. I get off at five where do you want to meet."
"Q's place? I have a sound check there at Four thirty."
"Okay" She said.
Five pm that afternoon he found himself sitting on the edge of stage absent mindedly strumming his acoustic, waiting for Rachel to show up. At five fifteen she came walking though the door. "You came."
"You didn't give me much of a choice." She said as she dropped her bag on the bar, and he laid his guitar back in its stand. He noticed her taking in the building he knew from Quinn that despite being invited numerous times during the building of it she had never been there.
"Want a tour?"
"Um sure." She said as he lead her up the stairs. He showed her the recording studio and a few of the dance studios before pulling her toward a pink door that had a gold star in the center of it.
"Q said she built this room with you in mind, she really misses you Rach." Rachel didn't say anything just followed him into the room which was full of dance equipment. She ran her hand across one of the bars, closing her eyes for a brief second and Puck wondered just what she was thinking. He made himself busy by looking at the photos that were hung in the room, to give Rachel a minute. He smiled as he realized most of them were of the Glee club. He had been so aborsed in looking at a picture of him; Rachel and Quinn that he didn't hear her come up beside him till she spoke.
"I remember that. It was Beth's second birthday, right before you left for Nashville." She said as she looked at the photo.
"Have you seen her or Shelby recently?"
"No I haven't seen them for about eight years now, Finn didn't like me seeing them so I just quit. Have you?"
"I see them about once a year; I send Beth autographs and stuff of her favorite stars if I meet them." He said as he sits down on the floor and Rachel did the same. They were quiet for a moment before Puck spoke. "Why'd you let him do it?"
"Let who do what?"
"Finn, why did you let him control your life like that, let him take your dream away, your friends away?"
"Because I loved him, and when you love someone you have to make scarifies."
"It's a two way street babe. What scarifies did he make?" All that met his question was silence.
"You don't have an answer do you? The Berry I knew would have had a hundred and one reasons why she did what she did."
"The Berry you knew is gone."
"I don't think so; I think she's still in there somewhere. I seen the way your eyes lit up when you seen this studio. She's still in there you just gotta let her out."
"I can't." She said quietly and he noticed a tear slid down her cheek.
"Why not?"
"Because that girl was naïve and stupid wanting dreams that were way too big."
"Bullshit! That girl was not naïve and stupid. You knew what you wanted and you went for it! The world was yours for the taking and you let one dumbass take it all."
"I loved him! I did what I had to do to keep him." Puck put his hand on her chin so he could raise her head to look him in the eyes.
"Sweetheart it ain't love if you have to give up everything you are." He said kissing her on the forehead and holding her in his arms as she began to cry.
"How do I get her back Noah?" Rachel asked as she buried her head in his chest.
"You forgot everything he ever told you and you do what makes you happy." He said. After a few minutes of just sitting in his embrace she got up out of his arms and walked over to the dance bar, She laid her hands on the bar began to slowly move though a old warm out routine. Puck just sits on the floor and watched as Rachel Hudson began to take baby steps to change back into Rachel Berry.
The next afternoon Puck walked into the club expecting to see just Quinn at the bar but was surprised to see Rachel there as well, both girls were sitting at the bar laughing and talking. "Girls" He said has he slid onto the stool next to Quinn placing his guitar on the floor.
"Noah, Puck." They both said at the same time.
"What are you two up to?"
"We're just talking about some new dance classes we should do here."
"We?"
"Yea, Rachel's agreed to be a dance teacher here." Quinn said with a large smile as Rachel excused herself to get another drink.
"Thank you by the way." Quinn said quietly so Rachel wouldn't hear.
"For what?"
"For bringing her back to us."
"No problem." A few hours later he found himself standing on stage in front of a packed room.
"For those of you who don't know I grew up in this hick town, so this is a homecoming for me in some ways. So I jumped at the chance when Quinn asked me to play her grand opening. I wasn't sure what to expect when I got here, but I realized not a lot has changed in this town. But the people have, I reconnected with someone who meant a lot to me in high school, but she wasn't quite the girl we both remembered so I wrote a song to help her remember." Puck said as he began to strum his guitar and sing.
So he's gone and left you all alone? You can say that cat is long gone I taught you lessons about freedom I'm alive
You think the better of your years
Were spent with him.
The little girl who used to dance
On fire and brimstone
Is all but dead.
Where's the girl I knew that held
A lighter up to the radio,
She'd do anything she wants
Because she can?
We were seventeen and wild
And we were jumpin' on the Devil's bed...
I didn't raise you like that.
.com/lyrics/c/christian_kane/lets_take_a_ ]
I taught you lessons about freedom
Strapped to the bucket of a 455.
I lit your hair on fire
Racing ten mile flats
Where American heavy metal cries.
Oh we were waitin' and wishin'
On pink slips and kisses at the end of the line.
When you rat-a-tat tatted on the glass
And you screamed on high,
I'm alive.
I bet you look real hard
You can find that girl within
She's probably waitin' in the wings
For you to come along.
To let her out again
You need a quarter mile, a bunch of horses,
And some gasoline.
Strapped to the bucket of a 455.
I lit your hair on fire
Racing ten mile flats
Where American heavy metal cries.
Oh we were waitin' and wishin'
On pink slips and kisses at the end of the line.
When you rat-a-tat tatted on the glass
And you screamed on high,
I'm alive.
You wanna meet a girl I used to know,
Let's take a drive.
Later that night after his show had ended and the coward had cleared out he found himself back on the second level of the building at the same pink door. He had seen her disappear right after his new song but he knew she didn't leave the building. He opened the door to find her once again sitting in the floor in the studio, he could see a picture frame clutched in her hands and dried tears on her cheeks. He sit down beside her and seen what she was looking at a photo of them from high school. It was from when they did a duet together.
"Thank you for the song."
"No problem." He said has he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
"I really don't know how to get back to her." She said running her hand across the image of her sixteen-year old self.
"Well helping Q with this place is a start. The big thing is just make sure you're happy, okay?"
"Okay." She said has she cuddled into his side.
"I think I could be happy with you." She said after a few minutes of silence.
"I think we could to. But you need to find yourself first before we can be anything."
"I know." She said sadly.
"Hey look at me." He said as she raised her head.
"I will come back, I promise you that." He said has he leaned down and his lips met hers in a gentle kiss.
"I'll hold you to that." She said giving him another kiss. They sit there for a little while longer before one of his band members knocked on the door and told him the bus was fixing to roll out. A few minutes later he was standing in front of his bus with Quinn, Will and Rachel standing there none of them wanting to say goodbye.
"You better come back soon." Quinn said as she gave him a hug and Will shook his hand.
"I will, as soon as my tour ends I'm back here."
"Two hundred and sixty nine days." Rachel said from where she stood beside Quinn with a sad smile on her face. She understood why they couldn't be together at the moment but it still broke her heart.
"They'll go by fast I promise, and I'll call, text and email when I can." He said as he pulled Rachel into a tight hug. He could feel her tears land on his neck.
"Don't cry, Pretty girl."
"I'll miss you." She said as they broke their hug.
"I'll miss you too." He said has he kissed her gently on the lips then the forehead. And then he was gone, not wanting to show any signs of being weak. He glanced out of the tour bus's window and seen that Rachel and Quinn were still standing there. Rachel still had tears in her eyes and Quinn had her wrapped in a hug, saying something to her. It broke his heart to leave her, but he knew that if he didn't she would never truly find herself.
Two hundred and sixty-nine days, millions of text messages, hundreds of emails and calls, and a ton self discovery later that same tour bus once again pulled into Lima, just like he had promised. He stepped off of the bus and seen the pink clad figure that came flying out of the center.
"Noah! Your home!" Rachel said has he caught her in a hug and spun her around.
"I promised you I would be back." He said has he kissed her on the lips quickly
"I know but…"
"You didn't believe me."
"It's not that I didn't I—" her rambling was cut off by Noah crashing his lips to her.
"I get it Berry."
"How long are you here?"
"At least a year. Told the label I needed a break before I made another album then I talked to Q and she said I could use the recording studio here."
"So you're all mine for a year."
"I'm all yours for forever Berry." He said has he leaned down and kissed her again. Before she grabbed his hand and led him into the center chattering about all the things they were going to do while he was home. Rachel Berry was back.