Note From The Author- This is something I've done with another category that I absolutely love, so I wanted to try one of its many variations here. I put my iPod on shuffle and chose lyrics from the first twenty songs that came up. I did skip a couple but those were pieces of books on tape and one Christmas song. Anyway, this is a series of short one shots focusing on different characters and pairings, each inspired by a song lyric, from the wonderful world of Glee. A lot of this is AU looking into the future, just what I think and hope could happen.
Disclaimer—I don't own the characters of Glee, and the credit for the songs is given with the lyrics.
Feels Like Today- Rascal Flatts
So while this storm is breaking
While there's light at the end of the tunnel
Keep running towards it
Releasing the pressure, that's my heartache
Soon this dam will break
Everything in Quinn Fabray's world had gone wrong. She had royally screwed up her life by turning her back on the sweetest guy on the planet, however briefly. Despite the fact that she could never love Puck, she had slept with him as a balm to soothe her soul after Finn's turn to the Glee freaks; and turning up pregnant had shattered her world.
It had been a miracle that Finn hadn't walked away from her when he found out the baby wasn't his. Quinn knew she was lucky to have someone love her that much, but it didn't change the fact that she had hurt so many people. Her parents still wouldn't speak to her, Mr. Schue had been devastated when he found out about his wife's deceit, and she had made Puck feel like lowest creature on the planet by trying to deny him the right to be a father to his daughter.
But she had been trying to fix things since she had made the final decision to keep her baby. She didn't want her daughter to grow up thinking that the lies and the deceit she had been operating on were okay. Her little girl was going to have two fathers and a family of singing weirdos that she was happy to be a part of; and as she screamed with her final push, she knew that the cracks in her heart would begin to heal the moment she heard that baby cry
Remember Me- Celtic Thunder
A comrade strums on a sad guitar
My mind is drifting to where you are
I'm holding you as I used to do
Remember me
It turned out that karma really did come back to bite you in the ass, and Terri Schuester had learned that lesson better than anyone. She didn't know what she had been thinking, listening to her sister and concocting some hair brained scheme to keep her claws in Will. When he had found out about it the look on his face had just about brought her to her knees, and she realized that she would never be able to get him back; not after what she had done.
The divorce had been final for a little over a month when she found the CD he had made for her on their first anniversary. She put it in the player knowing that it was going to hurt hearing him sing about what he had felt for her once, but something was better than nothing. As the guitar began to strum in the background, she thought about where he was then, and all she could hope was that he could remember the good times they had together instead of just the horrible things she had done to him.
That would have to be good enough.
This Love- Maroon Five
I was so high I did not recognize
The fire burning in her eyes
The chaos that controlled my mind
Noah Puckerman had decided that he was never going to drink again; it had caused him nothing but trouble and it certainly wasn't worth the damn consequences. A bender had landed him with a pregnant not-girlfriend who happened to be his best friend's long time love. Another drunken night had revealed the secret of the paternity of Quinn's baby and earned him nothing but a furious friend, a black eye and three bruised ribs for his trouble.
Still, he didn't learn his lesson; and when he and Santana had gone up to her room at a party one night, he was too wasted to see the anger in her eyes. Not that it really mattered anyway, considering that he passed out just inside the doorway. But when he woke up the next morning it was to find about two hundred MySpace comments on the pictures Santana had posted of him passed out on her floor decorated with about seventeen different colors of nail polish; including but far from limited to a bright red 'buyer beware' across his forehead, a warning label just above the waistband of his jeans, and 'cheerio revenge' on his chest.
Evidently screwing with Quinn had made enemies out of the entire cheer squad, and as he rubbed at his stinging chest with his second bottle of polish remover, his confused mother walked by just in time to hear him muttering under his breath.
"Never again."
Friends in Low Places- Garth Brooks
I'm not big on social graces
Think I'll slip on down to the oasis
Oh, I've got friends in low places
"Noah Puckerman what on earth are you doing?"
Already well past plowed, Puck looked up from his seat in the bleachers to see Rachel glaring at him. Her hands were on her hips and she had that 'I'm about to lecture you' look about her. It somehow didn't faze him. "I'm drinking, Berry. What the hell does it look like?"
She glanced around. "It looks like you robbed a liquor store, and that you're hopelessly drunk…" She glanced at her watch. "Two hours before the football game."
"Sounds about right. But I didn't rob a liquor store." He gestured wildly with the bottle in his hand. "Quinn's off to her last doctor's appointment with the jolly green giant instead of me, and I'm here. I'm always here."
Rachel didn't know what to do for him. Learning that the baby was his had been a shock, but learning just how much he cared had been earth shattering. With another look around them she sighed. "Noah where did you get all of this?"
"Friends in low places, Berry. Friends in low places."
Wide Open Spaces- Curtains Broadway Cast
Wide open spaces
Everywhere I look I see
Those wide open spaces
Where the future waits for you and me
When Finn looked at Quinn, he could see their future together. It wasn't always a particularly easy future, and it wasn't always the most glamorous, but it was always Quinn and him; like it had always been. Finding out she was pregnant didn't change that, Rachel didn't change it. But finding out that Quinn and Puck had slept together, that the baby wasn't his; that destroyed it all. And suddenly the future that had been so wide open ceased to exist at all.
Quando, Quando, Quando- Michael Buble featuring Nelly Furtado
I can't wait a moment more
Tell me quando quando quando
Say it's me that you adore
And then darling tell me when
Rachel hadn't meant to fall in love with Finn Hudson. Strictly speaking, he wasn't her type. Still, there was something about him that seemed to attract her like a moth to a flame. Maybe it was the goofy smile or the hidden talent. Maybe it was how sweet he was too her or how he didn't seem to care that she was Rachel Berry the Glee weirdo. The why of it didn't really matter, she had fallen head over heels for him.
And even though she knew that Puck was right, that Finn would never leave Quinn, she still waited and wished for the day when he would finally admit that he felt the same. Because believing that would happen made it all worthwhile.
The City Is At War- Cobra Starship
Come on!
Live it up while you can
We all lose in the end
No you don't get another shot
Bang bang! Shoot 'em up, yeah
"Why don't you live a little?" That one cursed sentence had landed Kurt in a world of hurt.
He had been invited to a football party at Finn's insistence; after all he had been part of the team. But the guys had spent the first hour he was there giving him crap about his 'my body is a temple philosophy' and his reticence to drink ever again after the incident with April. So they had asked him, 'why don't you live a little?' and after his sixth shot and his eighth defeat at Halo he had passed out face down in Mike's bathtub.
He woke up to find he had puked all over the bathroom and that his clothes were completely ruined. That one question from the night before kept ringing in his head, so before he left he stuck a note to the bathroom door. 'This is why."
It was his greatest pleasure to hear the yell of disgust that echoed out to his car as he drove away.
Seeing is Believing- John Barrowman
No way of knowing
Where this is leading...
It's fun forgetting
Who we are...
Who cares?
When now the world is far
Behind us...
They didn't make sense at all together, but neither of them seemed to care. It hadn't taken them long to figure out that Finn and Quinn would never break up, and that they would never have what they really wanted. So they chose each other, and though they tended to drive each other crazy, it was easy to forget the world while they were together.
They were teased mercilessly Puck spent half of his life dodging slushees and moving Rachel out of the way of their path, but it didn't matter; nothing really did. Because when he listened to her talk non-stop about some Broadway show that he didn't even care about or he spent three hours trying to convince her that beer and dip should be food groups they forgot that Finn and Quinn were living their fairytale. And though neither of them would have admitted it, they started to realize that maybe they didn't know where they were going, but it was entirely possible that they were meant to be.
You'll Be In My Heart- Phil Collins
For one so small,
you seem so strong
My arms will hold you,
keep you safe and warm
This bond between us
Can't be broken
I will be here
Don't you cry
Noah dreamed about her all the time. In the real world Quinn made sure that he would never have anything to do with his daughter, but in his dreams he lived everything that he would never get to have.
When he dreamed he could tell his daughter, who was just as awesome as her daddy in her kick ass Van Halen and Kiss onesies, everything he felt about her. While he slept he protected her from all the pain in the world and held her when she cried, and before long he found himself wishing that he could stay asleep forever. Only then would he be able to show his little girl just how much he cared.
Dancing in the Sheets- Shalamar
We got the rhythm
We've got the music on our side
If we go with 'em
I'll bet we'll have a wonderful ride
Your hands are cold
So maybe we coud make some heat
Love is always born on a chance
So wrap around me and baby let's dance
Glee outings officially sucked, and Tina had come to the conclusion the minute they had stepped into the bitter cold to look at the town's stupid Christmas village. She was freezing and pissed off, and watching Artie tease Santana to get the cheerio to actually laugh was putting her so on edge she thought she might go postal on the girl's ass.
No matter what they did she couldn't seem to get her mood to lift. Even when Mike and Matt started a ridiculously off key round of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause" she couldn't seem to even smile. The whole club was launching into "I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas" and pairing off to waltz crazily around the village when Artie rolled up next to her.
"Come on," he said, nudging her arm.
Tina frowned. "What?"
Artie just smiled up at her and patted his lap. "Come on, let's dance."
Suddenly Glee outings and Christmas villages and stupid songs didn't seem so bad at all.
Cody's Song- Kenny Loggins
Hold it; feel it,
Music is in your heart.
When you need it,
Just keep listening,
Let it sing, let it sing.
It wasn't every day that you walked in on someone having an altercation with an inanimate object, but as Rachel Berry rounded the corner to see Puck dent a locker with his fist she realized that today clearly wasn't every day.
"Did the locker look at you funny, Noah?"
When he met her eyes it was clear that he was just about as pissed as she had ever seen him, and his voice was low and hissing to match. "Mind your own business Berry."
She sighed, hugging her books to her chest. "Noah, I realize that you don't agree with me, but I think of you as a friend. Can I give you a tip?"
"Can I stop you?" he shot back.
"You're being a jerk again." But her just gave her that 'duh' look so she continued. "When I get upset I've found one thing that helps me calm down and that gets me work through what I'm feeling, and I'm sure you won't be surprised to know that it's music. Sometimes the only way to let things out is to tap into the music in your soul. It may not work, but it's something."
She walked off without another word, but when she passed the Glee room that afternoon on the way to her locker and heard his guitar, she couldn't help but feel just a bit proud.
Fade to Black- Alexz Johnson
Everything you are,
Everything reminds me of,
Everything you are,
Fades to black,
Every time I see your face,
Screaming the secrets we share,
We fade to Black.
Quinn didn't know any way to tell Puck how she felt about him. It wasn't that she didn't like him. Despite the fact that he was kind of an ass hat, there was something about him that was actually endearing. She had known him for years, and it felt sort of weird not to have him around as much. But pushing him away was her only option, because there was no way to tell him that all she saw when she looked at his face was the mess they had made, and the black hole of uncertainty that her life had become.
Face Down- The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Do you feel like a man, when you push her around?
Do you feel better now as she falls to the ground?
Well I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end
as your lies crumble down, a new life she has.
Face down in the dirt she says, this doesn't hurt she says I finally had enough.
It was after her fiftieth slushee that Rachel finally decided to do something. She was standing in the halls covered from head to toe in sticky red syrup, freezing while Puck and Matt threatened to beat the crap out of some hockey player and Kurt brushed at her wet face when she finally broke.
"Enough!"
The guys just watched in stunned silence as she took off down the hall, stalking past confused students and teachers as she made her way to the cafeteria. The lunch lady was so terrified by the thunderous look on the tiny girl's face that she didn't even worry about the fact that the extra large blue raspberry slushee in her hands hadn't been paid for.
She was back down the hall in what seemed like no time flat, and the jack ass from the hockey team was so busy paying attention to the threats being hurled at him that he didn't even notice that Rachel was about to go all McKinley High Carrie on him.
"Noah, you may want to move." Puck barely had a second to react, and he pivoted out of the way just before Miss Berry fully embraced her diva status and covered him in sugar and ice. "Doesn't feel so fabulous does it?" she questioned, looking straight into the wide eyes of the dripping hockey player.
She gave a little curtsy when applause erupted in the hallway, and as Noah swept her up for a kiss Rachel realized that the loss of her outfit was worth it for her self-respect and the knowledge that she would never be slushied again.
Uncloudy Day- Broken Bridges Cast
Yes, they tell me of a home
Where no storm clouds rise
Oh, they tell me
Yes, they tell me
Of an uncloudy day
His whole life Will Schuester had heard all of the platitudes about love. Finding the one was supposed to be like finding heaven, and when you were together things were perfect. If it was all true, he couldn't figure out how the hell he had ended up with a wife who wouldn't let him touch her and who seemed to have more interest in herself than she did in their marriage. And the myths sure as hell didn't explain how he had ended up in love with the world's most hypochondriacal woman.
So as he watched the doe eyed woman he had come to love walk down the aisle towards a man she didn't love, Will decided that everything they always said was bullshit. Because clearly there was nothing to look forward to in love if it all ended like this.
Valentine's Day- Jonathon Larson, Prostate of the Union
February winter in her heart
Said I'd show her normal love
She said too late to start
There was something different about Emma Pillsbury after her marriage to Ken Tanaka. Some of the wide-eyed innocence was gone, and though she was still a paranoid germaphobe she seemed completely different. She was just a bit harder, and a bit sadder; and everyone knew why.
Will's marriage to Terri had blown up, but by the time things had come to a head Emma was already married and off the market. It took him months to work up the courage to say something to her, but when he found her crying in her office one day, he decided he had to take the chance.
"I could show you what it's like to be really loved Emma. What it's like to be in a relationship and have them feel the same."
But her sad eyes had given away the answer before she spoke. "You're too late Will."
I Will Be the Flame- Cory Lee
Am I supposed to thank you for walking in my door
And giving me your love like pennies to the poor
You say that you're bringing me everything you've got
If you think that's good enough, you don't know warm from hot
Getting back together with Noah Puckerman probably hadn't been the best idea Rachel had ever had. But the two of them had some sort of a connection, and being a couple had made more sense than the pair of them randomly making out under the bleachers and up against his locker. However much sense it did or didn't make, being with him was hard. His teammates still gave him crap about being with her, and he had a tendency to make her the punch line of their jokes when they were all together. She knew she wasn't the easiest person to live with, but she liked to think that at the very least she never belittled Noah for the sake of her friends.
They had been back together for a couple of months when some unimaginative joke about Barbara Streisand had pushed her over the edge. She had endured enough of his crap and she wasn't going to take it anymore.
When Puck walked into Glee practice that afternoon, he was surprised to find himself practically airborne before his butt was slammed into a chair. "Baby, what the hell are you doing?"
Rachel folded her arms and stared him down. "Don't 'baby' me, Noah Puckerman! I've had it! I put up with the jokes and the teasing and all of it ever since the day we got back together, but I'm done. You treat me like I'm lucky to have you and that it's so amazing that you would deign to be with me, but I am not a consolation prize! If you can't treat me like an equal in this relationship then you had better just say goodbye."
She didn't even manage to storm half way out of the room before he got a hold of her and spun her into his arms for a kiss. They pulled away and he smirked down at her. "You're not the consolation prize."
Happy Man- Peter Cetera
Merely by chance
Very unsuspecting
You caught my heart
Unprotecting me
Now I've fallen in love with you
He had never been the type to do anything even remotely unethical. His morals were meticulous, he liked to be creative within the parameters of the rules, and he was unswervingly faithful. But Will gave more than he took, and he left his heart open to everyone. It was all of these qualities that had landed him in the most compromised position of his life. Because for him there was little worse than falling in love with a woman who wasn't his wife.
Globes and Maps- Something Corporate
I wanna hang onto something
That won't break away or fall apart
Like the pieces of my heart
Marrying Ken hadn't been in the cards for Emma Pillsbury when she had agreed to date him. It was just supposed to be a one or two time things so she wasn't rude. But the longer things went on the deeper she got, and she didn't know what else to do but to keep things up. The man she really loved was married with a baby on the way, and she would never be in the picture, no matter what she wanted.
Agreeing to marry a man she didn't love should have been much more difficult than it was. But Emma wanted something concrete in her life that wouldn't cause her pain every day, and it was surprising what you would do when your heart was broken.
Break Each Other's Hearts Again- Reba with Don Henley
And loving you should be the last thing on my mind
It feels so good to let you hurt me one more time
Terri and Will had been divorced for six months when they ran into each other at a local bar. She was still hawking sheets and towels and sleeping on her sister's couch, and the woman he had been in love with for close to a year had managed to actually fall in love with her idiot of a husband and had a baby on the way. So anyone could see how it was easy to fall back into bed with each other. At least they felt something, even if it hurt.
My Blanket and Me- B D Wong as Linus, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown
Whaddya mean?
It's a cozy sanctuary
But it's far from necessary
Cause I'm just as self-reliant as before
When one of the guys suggested that Puck would never be able to leave Glee because he'd become dependent on the music and the company he had laughed; and just to prove him wrong he had announced that he was leaving and that he wouldn't be back.
When he showed back up with his guitar two days later the rest of the Glee club was nice enough not to say 'I told you so.'