AN: Well, this is my first foray into the world of Glee! Love the show to death, and I'm extremely undecided about my pairings...so they may change from story to story. Actually, truth be told, I didn't really plan on writing this just yet, but it wouldn't leave me alone. So...yeah. Here it is!

Disclaimer: I don't have TIME to try and obtain the rights to Glee. And I do own Puck...in my dreams...

Noah Puckerman sat on the cold tiled floor of McKinley High, leaning against a row of dark blue lockers and strumming chords absently on his guitar. It was just after lunch and, being on his spare, he sat alone in the deserted halls. It was a stark contrast to break in between classes, when the halls were flooded with students, so much so that the school almost needed traffic lanes to accommodate all of the bustling bodies. But now...now it was just him and his guitar and, though he'd never admit it, he enjoyed the peaceful silence of the empty halls.

Well, almost empty. He looked up just in time to see Rachel Berry rounding a corner and coming down the hallway toward him. As she passed him, Rachel gave him a nod and the slightest ghost of a smile, which he returned, before turning into the girls' bathroom across the hall from him. They didn't associate much outside of Glee, despite the fact that they had briefly dated. It wasn't all that much of a disappointment to Puck, though; she spoke too much for her own good, anyway.

Puck watched her ass with a smirk as she walked into the bathroom, before going back to strumming chords on his guitar; as much as he hated to admit it to himself, she had a pretty awesome body. It was one of the few things she had going for her.

Puck didn't have time to strum more than two chords when he was assaulted by a scream coming from the bathroom. He jumped, startled, and rose quickly to his feet, discarding his guitar on the floor beside him, and started toward the door. He was just about to push it open when he paused, hesitating, his hand still resting on the door. It was the women's bathroom. He looked cautiously around himself. The halls were completely deserted. Still, he was afraid someone might walk by and see him going into the girls' bathroom and label him a pervert...or worse, a bad Jew.

"HELP!!!! SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!!" Came the same frantic scream.

Fuck it. Puck entered the bathroom, not caring if anyone saw. He'd be even more of a bad Jew if he didn't come to the aid of a woman in need.

Puck stopped dead when he rushed around the corner; the grotesque sight that met his eyes caught him off guard in its ghastliness.

Berry was kneeling on the floor beside a pale, motionless girl, dressed all in black, in the middle of a large pool of scarlet blood. Berry's hands were wrapped tightly around the girl's left wrist, attempting to stem the flow of blood, which kept spurting through her fingers anyway. Beside the right hand of the bleeding girl lay a shiny, sharp piece of metal; probably a razor blade. What disturbed him most about the scene was that he recognized the motionless girl on the floor; she had recently joined Glee Club.

"Noah! Help!" Rachel cried frantically, pulling him from his reverie. He nodded, rushing forward, slipping slightly in the sticky red pool. He bent down and lifted the motionless girl into his arms. She was heavier than she should be...

It had been several days since he'd been slushied, but the humiliation and disgust was still fresh in his mind. He'd vowed after taking that slushie that he would never again slushie anyone. Nor would he stand by and watch as someone else did so. So when he'd rounded the corner and come across one of the guys slushying a goth girl, he freaked.

"What the hell are you doing, man?" Puck asked, stepping between the girl and her tormenter and pushing him.

"What's it to you, Puck?" The guy pushed him back, "Since when do you care if I slushie the Queen of the Damned?"

"Since now." Puck growled, glaring at his opponent, "Don't let me catch you doing it again, or I swear to God I'll beat your sorry ass."

The other boy snorted, but turned around and walked away.

"Thanks." The goth girl spoke up after a moment. Puck turned around to look at her, dripping wet with cherry slushie, and shrugged.

"Whatever. Being slushied sucks." He said, trying to preserve his badassness and not come off as the heroic, chivalrous type, "Bathroom's over there; you should get yourself cleaned up."

The goth girl nodded, still looking at him as though he were some kind of knight in shining armour, and scurried off into the bathroom, wiping away the tears that were mixing with slushie.

Later that day, the goth girl showed up in Glee.

"We have a new member joining us today," Mr. Shuester announced, "Everybody give a warm New Directions welcome to Serena Becking!"

Everyone said hello, and after several minutes of introductions, Mr. Shuester suggested Serena sing something so that she could demonstrate her talent to the other Glee members. Taking a shaky breath, she began belting out "Concrete Angel" by Marina McBride. By the end of it, most of the Glee members were in tears. Even Puck couldn't help but stare at her in awe.

After that, Mr. Shuester divided everyone up in pairs in order to rehearse some choreography for Sectionals. Puck got paired with Serena.

They all danced around wildly, clearly having fun. At one point, all the male counterparts had to lift their female parters up in the air. Puck grabbed Serena and hoisted her up, noting how light she seemed. He couldn't help but smirk at her smile, the first time he'd seen her smile all day. It was goofy and carefree, and didn't seem to fit with her quiet, sad nature. Her eyes seemed so tired and hollow, but for a brief moment Puck could have sworn he saw a fire burning in them.

She'd been at three practises since, and although she participated in all of the numbers, she still seemed to prefer to sit off alone in the corner when she wasn't rehearsing...

...she was too heavy. Dead weight was the first phrase to pop into his mind, but he pushed the thought away with a shake of his head, feeling the bile rise up from in his stomach.

He raced out of the bathroom and down the hall, Rachel not far behind him, feeling the sick, hot, sticky blood flowing from the wound on her wrist, resting up on Puck's shoulder. He tried to keep it elevated as he ran, and despite his best efforts it continued to bleed down his shoulder onto his back and chest. He felt the wet spot on his knee (from where he'd knelt in the bloodpuddle to scoop up the motionless Serena) become icy cold, and he heard the sick squelch of his blood-soaked rubber-soled shoes as he ran, leaving a trail of bloody foottprints behind. He didn't stop until he reached the nurse's office, Rachel hot on his heels.

Bursting through the door, Puck could tell that the nurse was about to yell at him for just barging in...until she saw the terrified look on his face, his blood-soaked clothes, and the bleeding girl in his arms. She immediately directed him to put Serena on the exam table and immediately called an ambulance. Puck just stood there, bewildered, beside a similarly bloodstained Rachel, staring at the limp form of one of their fellow Glee Club-ers.