Too Little, Too Late
I got this idea from a reviewer who enjoys stories with Puck and Rachel having children together. Beth doesn't exist in this story so that means baby-gate never happened. I own nothing except for the character of Hailey. Enjoy!
Plot: Rachel and Puck shared a passionate night together when they were eighteen. But the next day, he ran. Now five years later, Rachel is living in New York with their daughter. When Puck moves to town to live with his best friends, Finn and Sam, he begins to search for the girl he left behind. Will Rachel be able to forgive Puck for leaving her and let him get to know their daughter?
Chapter 1
"Mommy!" Rachel heard a small voice calling as a hand shook her. "Mommy, Auntie Quinn is at the door."
Rachel opened her eyes and looked at the little girl in front of her. Still in her pajamas, the little girl looked anxiously at her mother, wanting her to get up. Rachel decided to have some fun with her instead.
"I think Auntie Quinn will just have to come back another day. Mommy's a little too tired to get up," she smirked, closing her eyes and pretending to go back to sleep. She had to keep herself from laughing when her daughter huffed and started shaking her again.
"Come on, Mommy. I've missed Auntie Quinn," her daughter said as she began to pull on her mother's arm. Rachel laughed and grabbed the little girl, beginning to tickle her. The girls laughed together as they heard another knock at their door.
"Go ahead and open the door," Rachel told her. The little girl ran to the door, afraid that Quinn will be gone. Rachel laughed to herself as she got out of the bed and went to greet her friend, who was hugging the little girl.
"I've really missed you, Hail," the blonde said, lifting Hailey in the air. "Europe just isn't fun without my favorite little girl in the whole world."
Hailey laughed. "So take me with you next time. Then we can have fun together. You know I really want to go with you."
"I think Europe is a pretty big place for someone your height love," Rachel smiled. She loved that her daughter had ambitions to go to such big places at such a young age. She was just like her mother. When she was a little girl, Rachel had always wanted to travel across the world. Now that Hailey was here, that dream would have to be put on hold for a little while.
Quinn rolled her eyes at Rachel's comment and looked back Hailey. "But don't think I forgot about you. Why don't you take this bag into your room and look at the gifts I brought back for you?"
Hailey jumped up and down in excitement. "Thank you, Auntie Quinn. You're the best," the girl hugged Quinn before taking the bag and running into her room. Rachel looked at her best friend and shook her head.
"Thank you, now whatever is in that bag will be everywhere in a few hours."
Quinn rolled her eyes. "Oh please, you know Hailey knows better than to leave a mess everywhere. She got that from her mom."
"Yes she did. So tell me everything. How was it? What'd you do? Did you meet any European guys who wanted to show you around?"
"Calm down nosy," Quinn laughed. "It was really fun, I went on a lot of tours, went shopping, ate at nice restaurants, and yes I did but I made it clear that I have someone that I had to come home to so they backed off."
"I'm sure Finn was very pleased with that," Rachel smirked. Quinn nodded in agreement.
"Oh yeah. I wish he could've came with me but he just had to stay here to run the shop. But when I saw him last night, it was like I had never left. It was amazing, it was passionate, it was-"
"Okay, I don't need to know how you and Finn celebrated your impending return," Rachel put her hand up to stop the blonde from talking. "That is way too much information for me to handle."
Quinn rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Anyway, I found out something when I came back last night."
"If you say anything about Finn's privates-"
"What?" Quinn asked, disgusted. "No not that. Finn told me that he and Sam have a new roommate. He said it's an old friend but he refused to tell me who."
"That's unusual. He normally tells you everything. But wait a minute, I thought you two were making plans to move in together?"
"Yeah we were but we decided that we were moving a little fast. I mean, we've been having this on-off relationship and I need to make sure that we're ready to make a commitment like this. I would prefer to wait until we've been dating for at least a year without having any problems or any threats of us breaking up again."
"Quinn these things can't be planned. I mean, you didn't want to sleep with him until you've been dating for a year but you see how that ended up."
Quinn shook her head. "You try seeing that man after he just got out of the shower. Words can't describe how tempting it is to do something with him. I'm surprised I made it as long as I did."
"Okay, once again I do not need to hear about you and Finn's sex life," Rachel emphasized before walking to the kitchen to start cooking breakfast. Before Quinn could respond, Hailey ran in the room, holding up a doll.
"Mommy look what Auntie Quinn got me," she told her. Rachel looked at it and nodded.
"Looks like Auntie Quinn knew exactly what you would like," she smiled before picking Hailey up and putting her on her lap. "Angel, I promise you we will be going to Europe one day."
"When? Like for Christmas?" Hailey asked.
Rachel looked into the hazel eyes of her daughter and felt her heart clench. Those were the same eyes that made her heart beat faster than a normal heart should years ago. When life wasn't so complicated for her. She loved her daughter more than anything in the world but she wishes she could go back to that night and figure out what went wrong. Until then, she would just have to focus on the little girl in front of her.
"Maybe not Christmas but one day. I promise," she declared, smoothing out Hailey's long brown hair. "Go get dressed while I make us some breakfast."
"Okay Mommy." Hailey ran to her room to pick out her clothes while Rachel sighed to herself and started cooking.
"What's wrong?" Quinn asked. She could tell by the way Rachel looked at Hailey that she was thinking about something.
"I just wish I could give her more than this. She deserves so much more than what I can give her. It's just not fair."
"Rach, you give her enough. She knows you love her and you only want the best for her. But maybe if you told her father-"
"No. Absolutely not. I don't want him anywhere near Hailey. I'm doing perfectly fine on my own, I don't need him."
"But Rachel, you can't keep him from her forever."
"Watch me. Besides, he's out living his life just like he wanted. And that life has no room for Hailey or me so it's best if we just forget about him. Now I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention him when Hailey comes back. I really don't need her asking any questions."
Quinn sighed and nodded, not wanting to argue with her friend. She knows the stress that Rachel has gone through in the past years and she didn't want to make it any more difficult on her. She didn't know all of the details of what happened her and the young man. She could just remember that day that Rachel called her in tears.
Flashback
Quinn was getting ready to go on a date with Finn when her cell phone rang. She realized the ringtone was Rachel's and quickly answered.
"Hey, I've been waiting to hear from you. I didn't get a chance to talk to you after the party a few weeks ago but I guess you wanted to keep me in suspense," she laughed. But Rachel didn't respond. Instead, all she heard was Rachel crying. "Rachel? What's wrong? Are you okay?"
"I made a mistake," Rachel choked out. "A huge, unfixable mistake."
Quinn was confused. Although she had just recently became close friends with the brunette, she doesn't remember ever hearing her so distraught. "What did you do?"
Rachel sniffed and tried to calm herself down so she could explain things to Quinn. "I had sex at the party. Then later, my period was late. I took a test and-"
"Oh my gosh. What did it say?"
"I'm pregnant," she said before sobbing again. Quinn was speechless. She couldn't believe that perfect Rachel Berry is really pregnant.
"Who's the father?" she asked, afraid to find out the answer. She prayed that Rachel wouldn't say that she didn't know because that would become a huge problem in itself.
"Noah. Noah's the father."
"You had sex with Puck? Oh Rachel." Of all people to have sex with, Rachel just had to do it with the biggest manwhore of them all. "Have you told him?"
"No point in telling him. He disappeared the next day before I woke up. I feel so horrible and worthless. Like I didn't mean anything to him. Obviously, this baby won't mean anything to him so there's no point in telling him."
"Are you going to, you know?" Quinn didn't want to say the actual word. "Get rid of it?"
"No. I think…I think I want to keep it. I'll just figure out how I'm going to do this. Can you just please come over? I really need a friend right now."
Quinn knew this was a scary thing to deal with. The date with Finn would just have to wait a day. "Yeah, I'll be right there."
Ever since that day, Quinn has been there for Rachel and helped her with everything. Telling her dads, going to doctor appointments, everything. It was as if this was her baby instead of Puck's. More than anything, Quinn wants to know why he would leave. What was so important that he just walked out on Rachel with no explanation? She just needed to find him.
And there is chapter one. We'll see what Puck is up to in the next chapter. Tell me what you think. Bye for now :)