My second Glee story! This idea has been in my head for about as long as my other story "Forgetting the Forgotten" (self promotion: go check it out!). I finally decided to write it down and it turned out a little differently... Enjoy!

"I see you looking at her when I'm looking at Finn, but you know what Noah? We are just going to have to get over it. They are closer now than ever before."

That was the speech that made Puck realize the truth. And the funny thing was that it was given to him by none other than Rachel Berry. It was the second day of their weeklong relationship when the news broke.

Puck had been sitting in Glee with the rest of the losers and wondering where his secret baby mama was. No one in the school had known about the baby at that point, because Quinn hadn't been booted from the Cherrios yet. Well, Glee knew. But no one would dare tell.

Quinn came in with tears running down her face with Finn's hand wrapped in hers. Puck immediately knew something was wrong. He wanted to jump out of his seat and demand to know what was the matter, but he knew it would blow their lie and Quinn would never even let him see his child.

Puck looked around the room and everyone's eyes were on the grief stricken couple.

Quinn made a small coughing sound and everyone quickly shut up, giving them the floor.

"Umm…we have and a-announcement to make," Quinn chocked on a sob halfway through and looked up at Finn. She clearly couldn't talk anymore.

"We lost the baby," Finn was tearing up and Quinn was now full on sobbing. She clutched at her now empty stomach through her Cheerio uniform and curled up in Finn's embrace.

Puck heard Brittany ask Santana were the baby went in the back of the room, but other than that, everyone else was silent. Watching the young soon-to-be parents go back to just being high school sweethearts. Rachel was the first to speak from her spot next to him.

"I'm so sorry, you guys." Rachel stood up and walked over to them. Finn wasn't looking at Rachel the way he used to, now he only looked at Quinn like that.

Rachel first wrapped her small arms around Quinn and then Finn. The rest of the Glee club getting up to do the same. But not Puck. Puck just sat there and took a moment to think about his child that didn't exist anymore. He looked up and his eyes locked with Quinn's as she was hugging Mercedes.

He thought he loved Quinn, but as he looked at her he felt nothing.

So when Rachel had said that he was staring at Quinn, she was only half right. Puck was staring at Quinn's stomach where his kid should have been growing. Imagining what his baby would have looked like. He had hoped that it would have his eyes.

Puck knew he should be extremely depressed, but very deep down Puck felt relief. It was only greater enforced when he figured out he didn't love Quinn. If by some miracle they had ended up raising their baby together, it wouldn't have lasted long. He loved the baby way more than he loved Quinn.

That moment on the bleachers on the last day of their very short relationship after Rachel had given him the speech, Puck made a promise to himself. He promised that if he ever had another child, he would love the mother and the child with all his heart, equally. If he ever got another opportunity he was going to do it right.

It wasn't the first time Puck had made a promise to himself about a woman and a child. The first was when he found out Quinn was pregnant. He told himself that he would love her and their child forever. He could only fulfill half of the promise now.

His unborn baby would stay with him for as long as he lived.

Rachel told him they should just be friends and Puck didn't blame her. Throughout their short-lived relationship, Puck had spent most of it mourning his lost child. Of course, Rachel didn't know that. She thought he was upset for the same reason she was, never getting a shot at the love you thought you wanted before Quinn and Finn decided they would be together forever.

Puck spent the next three months drunk off his ass before Rachel staged an intervention. No one even decided to show up and Rachel had to get him sober on her own. After he cleaned up his act, he and Rachel had an odd sort of friendship. It was always casual. Rachel would yell at him and then buy him a coffee when he came to school hungover, and he became her new male lead until Finn started to feel up for it again. They sat together on the bleachers and talked about nothing and everything. Just because they could.

And no one ever found out that Puck was the real father of Quinn's child. The child that only thirteen people had ever known about. Fourteen if you counted Jacob Ben-Israel, but only Rachel knew that he knew and she gave him a pair of underwear every month for a year so that he would never tell anyone.

After about a year, everyone pretty much forgot about the baby. No one talked about it, and Quinn and Finn didn't either. The two of them just fell deeper in love and everyone was content to let them.

Only two other people were hurt during the whole ordeal. Rachel and Puck. Rachel thought Finn would end up being hers after he had cheated on Quinn with her, and Puck was just mourning a lost life he had helped to create. They just swallowed their sadness and soldiered on though, because both of their reasons for being sad were secrets. Secrets that would never surface.

So three weeks after their "Need You Now" performance and three weeks and four days after one of their private rehearsals at her place got very heated, Puck was given a chance to keep the promise he had made to himself.

And the funny thing was that it was given to him by none other than Rachel Berry.

Love it? Hate it? Suggestions? Review!

I hope you liked it and tell me what you think!

xoxo Brooke