A/N: Just a quick little Puck/Quinn drabble I thought up and needed to write down. Set a few weeks after they graduate high school. Canon compliant.
He knocked on the door frame quickly, then shoved his hands back in his pockets, resuming his usual hunched posture. She looked up at him and smiled weakly, her hands holding a picture tenderly, a cardboard box in front of her.
"Can I come in?" He asked softly, and she nodded, brushing some light blonde strands of hair out of her face and gesturing to the spot on her bed on the other side of the box.
Her room was scattered with identical boxes, all of them packed up with tape holding them closed and the contents written on the side. Most of the room was packed up, except for this last box. He sat down on her bed and peered inside, seeing memories of the last few years placed gently inside. The picture of her and Finn at Homecoming when they were sophomores, her and the Cheerios, the glee club holding their Regionals trophy and laughing, and the picture of her and Coach Sylvester with the Cheerios' Nationals trophy. Her old Cheerios uniform was folded and on the bottom of the box, a bit of red and white peeking up at them. One of Sam's letterman patches was sitting next to the miniature jewelry box Tina had given her for her last birthday. There was a necklace shaped like a gold star with a Q engraved on it on top of the picture of the glee club. Rachel had given one to everyone with their initials on them the night they graduated. He was wearing his now, under his shirt. The N on it was wearing away, because he held it in his hand too often, rubbing across the surface with his thumb when he was nervous.
"I'm glad you came to see me before I left." She said suddenly, looking up at him and brushing her hair away from her face again.
It was weird to see her hair down again. She had only worn it like that for glee performances, special occasions, and when she was pregnant. The rest of the time, it was up in a tight, no nonsense ponytail. He liked it better down. He had to stifle the urge to touch it again, to run his fingers through it like he was used to.
"I had to say goodbye, Quinn. We have a lot of history. It wouldn't be right to just let you leave without a last hug and sarcastic remark from me." He said, trying to lighten the mood. She would be leaving for college tomorrow. He'd stay here, in Lima. They'd probably never see each other again.
"That's true, Puckerman." She said, looking back down at the picture in her hands. After a moment, she handed it to him. "We made a beautiful baby, you know. I'll miss you, Puck. You can be a real jerk, but I'll miss you when I'm in Oregon."
He took the picture and looked at their daughter, feeling tears threaten and blinking them back angrily. He hadn't seen Beth since the day she was born, when he and Quinn had signed her over to Shelby, her adoptive mother. She was 2 now, and a bright eyed toddler. She had his eyes and her mother's hair. She was smiling at the camera with joy, and he was dangerously close to tears.
"She is. And I'll miss you too, Quinn." He said thickly, handing her the picture. She took it and stroked Beth's face, and he realized she had been crying. Quinn put it in the box quickly and handed him another picture, framed in dark wood.
"I think you should have this." She said suddenly, smiling sadly at him. Unsurprisingly, it was a picture of Beth and him in the hospital, and he couldn't look at it long, or he actually would cry.
"Thank you." He said, touching her hand across the cardboard box.
"You're welcome, Puck." She responded, looking anywhere but at him.
They talked for a long time. They talked about Shelby, they talked about Beth, they talked about Mr. Schuester, they talked about Rachel, who had left for New York a week before. They talked about Finn, who was leaving for Michigan soon, and about Artie, who was headed to London, of all places. Mike was in California with Tina, and Brittany and Santana were in Arizona. Sam was already in Oregon, waiting for her. They didn't talk about Puck being the only one who was staying in Ohio. They didn't talk about the fact that they hadn't been too see their daughter once. They talked about the life they had left behind, they talked about their old glee club. They didn't talk about Quinn's future, or about Puck's lack of one.
When the sun had long since gone down and Quinn needed to finish packing because her flight was leaving at noon the next day, Puck stood up to leave. She stood up to hug him, and the promise ring Sam had given her when they were juniors glinted on her left hand. It cut though Puck's heart unexpectedly, and he was painfully aware of the fact that the only girl he had ever loved would marry someone else eventually.
He hugged her tightly, knowing he'd probably never see her again, and savored the smell of her apple shampoo. He kissed her cheek gently when she pulled away, and told her again that he'd miss her. Then he tapped the last picture on her bed, one of them and Beth, right after she had been born.
"Quinn...when you have children of your own, with Sam or whoever you get married to, please, please," he looked at her with teary eyes now, forgetting for a moment that Noah Puckerman doesn't cry, "show them this picture, and please, tell them my name."
Quinn cried then, and hugged him again. "I won't forget you, Noah." She said softly, and then he nodded into her shoulder and left.
A year later, a wedding invitation came in the mail for him. Quinn Fabray was becoming Quinn Evans, and she was getting married in the church in Lima that she had grown up attending. There was a picture on the invitation of Sam and her, and another one, separate from the papers, an old one, of her and Puck. It had been taken when they were in glee rehearsals, singing to each other some stupid 80's song that he had long forgotten. On the back, Quinn had written in her neat cursive:
Puck, when you get married and have children, please show them this picture, and tell them my name. I don't want you to forget me either. -Q