Author's notes: So this started off with me trying to write a comedic piece, but as I started writing my hatred of how Pucks whole story line was dealt with just sort of… flowed through, so now it's an attempt at the odd combination of funny and serious that glee usually is. It didn't quite get there but I hope you enjoy it despite that!

I am not great at writing dialogue, and usually try to avoid it wherever possible, so I wrote this to force myself to use some. As a result I would love feedback on all areas, but especially the dialogue. Thanks!

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or any of the characters, except for Jeff Nichols, he's mine, but all he gets is a mention so he doesn't count!

Coffee and Conversations.

All Will wanted was coffee. He had been looking forward to it since breakfast, and had finally found five free minutes in the day. They were going to be the best five minutes ever once he could reach that delicious caffeinated beverage machine that lay just around the corner and through the staff room door. He could nearly taste it as he rounded that corner… and then his heart sank.

For some inexplicable reason there was about twenty teachers standing outside the staffroom door. Standing between him and the coffee machine. He spotted Emma and pushed his way towards her.

"What's going on?"

Emma turned round and he noticed the slight look of panic on her face. Whatever was going on it wasn't going to be good.

"Coach Bieste and Mrs Doosenberry are having a… a discussion… everyone is afraid to go in there; Principal Figgins thinks coach Bieste is only minutes away from breaking out some wrestling moves…"

Emma had turned back towards the door before Will rolled his eyes. Mrs Doosenberry was a mild mannered geography teacher who had a lot of cats, and coach Bieste was… well, she liked Will. He was fairly sure she wouldn't throw him through a window or anything like that. Coffee was worth the risk anyway.

He took a deep breath and started to push his way through the crowd. Even for teachers in McKinley, standing around and just about stopping short of chanting "fight, fight" was a new low. Once he got through the crowd to the door he started to have second thoughts about the coffee. The two teachers in the room really did look moments away from a full on brawl. Mrs Doosenberry was standing up, looking tense, and ready to pounce, kind of like all those cats she kept showing him pictures of. Coach Bieste was the opposite; she looked totally relaxed, but was circling the geography teacher. She reminded Will of a wolf or a shark in one of those nature programmes Emma watched.

If he didn't think there was a strong possibility that this would end in grievous bodily harm to one or both teachers he would have laughed, but, instead he decided it would be safer to intervene. Well, safer for Mrs Doosenberry and Coach Bieste, not necessarily safer for him. They were dangerously close to the coffee maker though, and Will figured if a geography teacher was thrown into it, he probably wouldn't get his coffee, so he stepped between the two, not making eye contact in an effort to avoid appearing confrontational. He gave a start and then made a mental note to stop watching those nature programmes with Emma.

"Um, so what's going on?"

He was trying to keep his tone as relaxed as possible, in an effort to avoid adding to the tension in the room, and forced himself to just breathe when he was answered with nothing but a stony silence. After twelve deep inhales and exhales worth of silence he had to ask again.

"Ok… does anyone want to tell me what this is about? We're all adults here surely we can settle this in a sensible, mature, rational fashion?"

It took another six long breaths before Mrs Doosenberry finally broke the silence, and the rant that followed made Will wish he had brought coffee in a thermos like Emma had suggested.

"Sensible? Mature? Rational? That woman wouldn't know the meaning of the word! She wants me to sacrifice my integrity as a teacher, as an educator. She wants me to make allowances and give special treatment to one of her football players! Yet again this school and the members of its faculty are asking teachers, professionals, whose only aim in life is to send their students out into the world with an average standard of education, to allow someone who is decidedly below average to slide through the nets, just because they can kick a ball… I won't do it! I will not let a child who did not pass my class fall through the cracks, just because he is good at football. It's against all I stand for as an educator! It won't help him in the long run; all I would be doing is enforcing the idea that being good at sport will get you far in life. It won't, once that kid leaves high school his life will suck just as much as everyone else's and the sooner he learns that the better. "

Will thought that it was the most he had heard the woman speak since he started in McKinley; usually she just told short, not very amusing anecdotes about her cats. She sounded like she meant it though. She was practically hissing at coach Bieste by the end of it. The coach at least seemed to have calmed down during the speech. She had taken a seat and was sipping a previously abandoned cup of coffee. Will felt a twinge of jealousy as he eyed the mug in her hand but now that he had intervened he had to see this finished before he could get his own hot cup of delicious caffeine. He took a deep breath and spoke again.

"Coach? Is this true? I mean, you know you can't really do that right? I know the cheerios get special considerations but that's just because Sue is… well… she's insane."

He was trying to sound calm and relaxed as he said it, but he knew whatever Bieste had to say, it wouldn't be said quietly. She looked like she was about to throw something at someone. However, when she spoke she spoke softly. It was still threatening, but at least she wasn't shouting.

"No Will, I am not asking her to pass a student who is not up to standard, I am asking her to give a student another chance to prove that he is up to standard. I'm not asking this because the student is on the football team, I am asking this because it has recently come to my attention that the student has been ignored and neglected by everyone in his life, including everyone involved in his education. So Mrs Doosenberry over there is as much to blame for him flunking out as he is, we all are."

Will glanced over at Mrs Doosenberry. She looked a touch more composed, and slightly ashamed. He didn't think either woman had heard what the other was saying until he had involved himself in the conversation. His moment of relief was short-lived as Mrs Doosenberry found her voice again.

"That particular student isn't worth the effort coach, and you damn well know it! He only attended seven classes this year and all of those were after-"

Before Will could react to the fact that mild mannered Mrs Doosenberry had just said damn, coach Bieste interrupted, rather loudly.

"See that right there is the attitude I'm talking about! How can you just write off a student because they were a bit difficult? If we only taught the ones that were easy, gave up on any student that proved a challenge, my football team would consist of Artie Abrams, Mike Chang and Jeff Nichols. We wouldn't have won championship last year with just the three of them now would we?"

Will swallowed a laugh at that.

"She has a point Mrs Doosenberry, I mean just look at my glee club, if I only dealt with the nice, easy going kids, I'd have a glee club of about four students…"

He thought that would soothe the raging geography teacher, but instead it just seemed to further infuriate her.

"Oh so that's your game is it Mr Schue? Would you be here if he wasn't in your precious glee club? You're just like all the rest of them, only you're sneakier! You come in here acting like you just want to be the voice of reason, and then you try to gain my trust before convincing me to give one of your glee club pets… Oh yes, I'm onto your little game…"

Will made another mental note: suggest that Figgins grant Mrs. Doosenberry a long leave of absence, preferably starting today. This was more than the usual level of paranoia present among the teachers of McKinley. He had to bring himself back into the moment though, as the ramifications of what coach Bieste had just said were sinking in.

"Wait, this kid is in my glee club? No, I mean we just talked about this a few weeks back, they're all really psyched about their futures, they're all totally fine…"

All the rage seemed to visibly leave coach Bieste as she spoke again.

"Will, can you close the door please? What I'm about to say can't leave this staff room, it's for our ears only."

As soon as he closed the door, she spoke again.

"Look, I had a student fall apart before my eyes today, I had him break down, tell me he was useless, tell me he was garbage. He thought he had nothing to live for, thought he had done nothing right with his life. He cried, he actually broke down and cried because he had never been told he was worth anything. Not by anyone. Not by his parents, not by his football coach, not by his glee club coach and not by his geography teacher. Not by anyone. He puts up this front, and because it's easier to believe there's nothing going on behind it, easier to believe he's just difficult we all took him at face value. We never asked why he was difficult. We've all let him down, and now I want to give him a chance to pass a test, and graduate high-school, to give him one god damn thing that he can be proud of in his life, and you won't give him that because of some stupid hatred of football players that is probably rooted somewhere deep in your childhood…"

The last bit was aimed at Mrs Doosenberry, but Will knew some of that speech was intended for him too. Apparently he had failed a student. He always thought of himself as a teacher who went above and beyond the call of duty, but maybe he was a bit selective about that. He felt his stomach drop as realisation slowly sank in.

"Puckerman….."

Coach Bieste confirmed his suspicions with a sharp nod.

"Yeh, the kid cried today. Can you imagine how far he'd have to be pushed to cry? And what could I say Will? What do you say to a kid that's going nowhere and knows it?"

Mrs Doosenberry had been silent for the last few minutes, but she spoke up from the corner.

"I still can't pass him just because he cried, I have some professional ethics. I suppose I can let him sit the test one more time, but that's it. If I get another drawing of a dinosaur playing a guitar instead of test answers I will fail him."

"You get those too? They're good dinosaurs; I couldn't draw one playing a guitar that well."

Will realised he wasn't helping as the words came out of his mouth but he was still a bit on edge due to the revelations of the last few minutes. He really didn't understand how he could have missed something so huge going down with one of his glee kids. He was the one they were supposed to turn to, he'd worked so hard at getting them all to trust him, but Puck had turned to coach Bieste.

He finally made it to the coffee machine and poured some into a mug. Coach Bieste left the staffroom to go and find Puck and tell him the good news, and Mrs Doosenberry left to look at her cat photos somewhere quieter. Teachers began to shuffle back into the staffroom, but Will only had eyes for one. He was looking for Emma; he really needed to talk to her. He needed to figure out how he had missed this. How he had let down one of his kids.