The Moment I Knew
AU Glee Fan Fiction Series
Chapter 1: Background

A/N: So I started to attempt this plot before, and I wrote it into a dead end and lost my inspiration. After reading some spoilers for the episode The Quarterback and discussing my disappoint in what they said with my two guy friends who are also pretty big Glee fans, I've decided to give it another go. Especially after telling my guy friend what I thought should happen and he told me that it was the saddest, most beautiful thing he ever heard and it belonged on Glee because it just made sense. Besides, my other guy friend told me that what they are apparently doing with Puck is just too cliched and he predicted it from the start. I'm going to be doing this a bit differently, though, than I did originally so I hope that you guys enjoy this and think that it's up to my usual standards. And I know that I shouldn't be starting a new story with my hectic life but I really would love to get this idea out.

Junior Year:

"Finn broke up with me."

The words were out of Rachel Berry's mouth as soon as she crossed the threshold into the choir room to find Noah Puckerman sitting at the piano, playing a simple melody of some song she was sure he was working on writing.

He stopped playing, fingers hovering over the black and white keys as he raised an eyebrow, his usual smirk on his face as he turned to look at her, already knowing the appearance she'd have on her face.

There wouldn't be tears. There would only be an angry indifference that showed that she really wanted to punch him in the face for being so stupid. Punch Finn, that is. She'd never wanted to hit Puck, even when he was being a complete and total jerk, throwing slushies into her face and making her feel like nothing more than a loser. Even when he had informed her that they'd never been friends after their break-up the previous year.

"You aren't upset," He stated.

"Clearly," She rolled her eyes, sitting down on the bench besides him, forcing him to scoot over to make room for her. "Why would I be? He lied to me about being a virgin and led me to believe we were both virgins. And then he was angry with me for being hurt by his lies, saying I had no right to be angry because we hadn't been together when he slept with Santana-of course it had to be Santana Lopez of all people, to add to my pain and humiliation. And then he broke up with me for kissing you and acted as if I were the only one to be wrong and betray anyone's trust in this relationship!" She said, crossing her arms in indignation.

"You're better off without him. Need a ride home from school today?"

"I actually have to go to your house. Your mom called and said she's working a double shift. She wanted to make sure that Naomi had a proper dinner when she got home from her basketball practice," She shrugged, reaching out and starting to play a new tune on the piano, a different take on a Taylor Swift song that Puck's younger sister was constantly forcing him to listen to when she was in the car with him.

"She doesn't trust me?"

"You're idea of a healthy dinner is a Meat Lover's Pizza," Rachel rolled her eyes. "With Cherry Cola to drink and fried dough for dessert," She added in a dead-pan tone.

"I'm giving her most of the food groups! Protein, dairy, grains, fruits!" He defended himself.

"Cherry cola hardly constitutes as a fruit and pizza and fried dough are awful excuses for grain. I think I'll make some pasta for you two for dinner. But you'll have to make the sauce if you want a meat sauce. I refuse to touch that disgusting flesh of a dead animal," She shivered at the very thought.

He laughed, shaking his head as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him as he forced her to stand up with him, grabbing her bag and his own before leading her out into the hallway. They walked in a comfortable silence down the hallway until they reached the exit of the school, crossing the parking lot and climbing into his truck-his pride and joy.

Once they were away from all prying eyes, he allowed himself to speak.

"You know, it's okay to be sad. I know you really loved him," Puck whispered.

"And I know that he never really loved me. He's always going to put me second to Quinn," Rachel said, giving him a sad smile.

What she didn't know was that she was wrong. She had never been more wrong. Finn would always put Rachel before Quinn, because she meant so much more to him. He wanted to be with Rachel because she was so talented, full of so much promise. Not because she was the gorgeous, popular cheerleader with a killer body.

He had been with Quinn because he'd thought that he needed to be with her. He had assumed that the quarterback and the head cheerleader belonged together, whether either of them really wanted to be or not. And after their relationship had begun, he had slowly started to fall for her. But he hadn't fallen so hard that it was impossible for him to get up. He merely fell for everything that he thought he should be falling for-her looks and her status.

With Rachel? Finn had never stood a chance in the matter and he never let anybody forget about how perfect she was, how talented she was. How lucky he was to have her.

If it weren't for the fact that Puck agreed with everything that Finn was saying, he probably would have punched him in the face a long time ago and told him to shut up and stop acting like such a girl. But he didn't. Instead, he listened on silently as his ex-best friend went on to brag about his relationship with the perfect girl that both Finn Hudson and Noah Puckerman were so crazy about, confusing all of the other members of the student body as they tried to figure out what it was about Rachel that drew two of the most sought after guy's at school like bees were drawn to honey.

If they listened to Finn going on and on about her talent and her bright future, the way she believed in him and pushed him to be the best he could be, they would understand why Finn was so in love with her.

And if they paid attention to the smile that Puck got whenever she was near him and talking to him, whether directly or in a group conversation, they would realize that Puck had loved her for so long there wasn't even a reason for it anymore. He loved everything about her and he couldn't control it if he wanted to.

"You need to make a move for Rachel. You like her, she likes you, and you two bring out the best in one another," Santana Lopez slammed Puck's locker shut, rolling across the metal so that her back was against his own locker, arms cross tightly across her chest as the cheerleader glared at him.

"What are you talking about? I thought it was pretty clear that she's still stuck on Finn and just worries about getting him back," Puck rolled his eyes, adjusting the strap of his backpack, gaze locked on the floor beneath him.

Nobody, except for Rachel, knew him as well as Santana and the two girls were the only ones who could go and tell when he was lying, with the exception of his mother and his sister. After all, three of them were the most important women in his life and the fourth was one who had been a big part of his life for a very long time.

"Besides, she and I are just friends. Best friends. It's all we're ever going to be," He muttered under his breath.

"You want more than that and if you keep pretending to go after that cow Lauren Zizes in futile attempts to try and act as though you aren't into her, I'm going to tear your mohawk off of your head and see if I can find your brain and figure out why it isn't working. Nobody is falling for your little act except for Rachel, and after that little performance you two just had in the choir room, I think it's been made even clearer to anybody who might have questioned it," Santana insisted.

Puck sighed, reaching up and running a hand through his mohawk as he glanced over his shoulder. Maybe he would admit it to Santana and maybe the Latina was insisting that everybody already knew about his feelings. It didn't mean he was going to work towards giving them actual proof, just incase Santana was wrong and Rachel didn't really feel the same.

He couldn't handle the humiliation, shame and pain of losing her twice with public knowledge. Besides, he was just starting to get his reputation back as the Bad-Ass-Mador for the football team and the Glee club.

He wasn't sure he was willing to give any of that up just yet.

"Am I really that obvious?"

"Don't be an idiot. Of course you're not. But I know everything about you. I can read you like a book, remember?" She laughed, shaking her head as she pushed away from his locker.

"You know, you really are something special," Puck said, cracking a half smile as he reached out and pulled her into a hug, forcing her into the tight bear hug that he already knew that she hated receiving.

"Yeah, yeah-alright already!" She giggled, a very un-Santana like gesture that only he had ever been able to get out of her. "Now, hurry up and go get your girl," She insisted, a playful smile on her face as she reached out and shoved him down the hallway, in the direction of the choir room, where Rachel was always located.

Puck started down the hallway that she had pushed him towards, stopping when he found Finn Hudson at the trophy case, gazing at all of the old football trophies from back when the team had been good-from years before their old coach had started and before they had finally gotten a good coach who actually understood and liked football; a coach who knew what it took in order to win.

In retrospect, stopping was the worst mistake of his life but he still needed one more thing before he went and made a move on Rachel. He couldn't, on good conscience, make a move on her before he knew that it would be already with Finn Hudson, because he refused to take another girl from his best friend, whether or not they were currently friends at the moment.

"What happened to us?" Puck asked. "We used to be best friends, you know, before I slept with your girlfriend and made out with your other one," He said, flashing Finn that stupid smile that had always made his best friend laugh at how dumb his friend could be.

Finn flashed him a glare, signaling he had said the wrong thing.

"I'm sorry, Finn, I was wrong, okay? Quinn never meant anything to me, though. You have to get that. She was just one drunken night and I wasn't thinking. It didn't mean anything, even if that doesn't really do anything to change the fact that it happened. I didn't set out with the intentions of hurting you," Puck said, softening his expression as he frowned.

"What about Rachel? Why'd you sing that duet with her?"

Puck remembered Rachel asking for his help in singing a duet to make Finn jealous, but he wasn't going to tell Finn that. He wasn't going to tell Finn the truth in why he'd agreed, either. So, he didn't answer.

"Just forget about it. We need at least some people on the team to be talking. I'm willing to forgive you if you promise me something."

"What?"

"Stay away from Rachel."

"She's my best friend, Finn. You know I can't do that. She babysits my little sister, for god's sake!" Puck shook his head, trying to contain his anger at Finn for thinking he could control Rachel's love life.

"Get some other girlfriend. Be Rachel's friend, whatever. Just stop touching her all the time. Stop kissing her cheek and her forehead and stop holding her hands. Don't hug her and don't walk with her arm in yours. Don't put your arm around her shoulders or her waist. Act like a best friend, not a boyfriend!" Finn shook his head. "We need to get along to win, you know that," Finn muttered.

And Puck did know that. Which was why he agreed, even if he knew a part of him would never forgive Finn for this.

"Fine, I promise," Puck sighed.

As he turned to walk away, only one thought remained in his head. Santana was going to be pissed.

Senior Year:

"I'm not graduating."

The news hit Rachel like a wrecking ball and they managed to break through the walls she had just put up around her pain of getting rejected from NYADA. The letter hadn't come yet. Carmen hadn't even left yet. But, Rachel had forgotten the lyrics to a song she'd known her entire life and she had blown it. She would never be able to make it at NYADA after an audition like yet, yet alone start a career on Broadway. All of her dreams were shattered.

"I'm not making it to NYADA," She said, tears falling down her face.

Immediately, his arms wrapped around her and pulled her close to him as he forgot about the promise he had made to Finn Hudson the previous year. Maybe he shouldn't be acting so much like a boyfriend, but when it came to crying girls, his instinct was to wrap his arms around them in a tight hug as he tried to reassure them that everything would be okay.

And when it came to Rachel, he wanted to do that more than usual because of his strong feelings of something more than friendship and because of the fact that she was, well, Rachel. She was his entire world, after all and she always had been. She always would be. She was his everything and he still couldn't believe he'd ruined every chance he'd ever gotten to have a chance at a relationship with her because of his sense of right and wrong.

"If you don't make it into NYADA, they are passing up on a talented chick with an incredible voice that shouldn't even be physically possible to come from a human, alright? So whatever happened, just know that they're putting you in. I don't care what you did. As long as you sang, you're getting in because that voice? It's too good to pass up, alright?" He whispered the promise into her hair as he planted a soft kiss to her temple.

"I passed! Rachel, I passed the test and I'm going to graduate!"

Noah Puckerman's excited shouts could be heard throughout the entire school as he raced from his European Geography class and towards Rachel's locker, where she was standing with a confident smirk that showed she had accomplished something big.

"You did? Oh, Noah, I knew you could do it!" She grinned as she ran into his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck and allowing him to pick her up, swinging her around.

"How'd everything go with Carmen?" He wondered, setting her back down on the ground and releasing his grasp on her.

"She said she'd come! I didn't hear her say it because I'd gotten frustrated and disappointed and left her presence immediately after she'd rejected me, but Tina stayed and whatever she said convinced her to come!" Rachel said excitedly.

"Looks like our futures are heading in the right direction," He winked at her.

"Did you ever doubt it?" She teased. "Now, about you pulling that prop-knife in that fight the other day with Rick, The Stick, Nelson..." She trailed off as they walked down the hallway together, his arm over her shoulders casually.

Noah Puckerman and Finn Hudson were sitting on the top row of the bleachers, the moon and the stars acting as their only source of light as they stared out at the darkened football field that had defined their lives for so long. They were sitting together, staring at the field as they discussed their lives and plans for after high school was over, which would be coming up in only a few short weeks.

Finn was deep in thought as the boys sat in silence. He tilted his head back, taking a sip of his beer.

The boys knew that it was risky to be drinking on school grounds, especially so close to graduation, but they didn't care. They did this whenever they had something big to discuss and whatever it was that Finn had to say, he'd made it sound drastically important to Puck when he'd called and told him to meet him there.

"I'm not going to marry Rachel," Finn said suddenly.

"What?" Puck asked, choking on his beer as he allowed a small spit take. "Are you going to tell her? Why? What happened?"

"I love her. I love her so much that I have to let her go and do what she needs to do to make her future. She deserves better than me. I'm stuck in Lima and she's considering not going to NYADA to stay here with me. I can't let her do that. So, I'm sending her to New York the day of our wedding and I'm going to enlist in the army," Finn said determinedly.

"The army?" Puck wondered.

Normally, this would be good news for Puck. After all, he was about to learn that his best friend was breaking things off with the girl that Puck himself was in love with for his own reasons. Finn was the one to end things with Rachel because he realized that Rachel was just meant for different things than he was himself, and he didn't want to work to make himself worthy of her.

But, he was going to have to deal with a heartbroken Rachel and that wasn't cool. And, he had to comprehend that his best friend was enlisting in the army, meaning he was about to put his life on the line.

Those were two very hard things to deal with and they weren't something that Puck should have to focus on when drunk. He needed a sober mind to think it all through. And once he had realized what had been said, he would go and get drunk in an attempt to cope. That was how Puck liked to deal with terrible news.

"I need you to promise me something," Finn went on as if Puck hadn't asked a question. "If anything happens to me, I want you to take care of Rachel. Make sure she doesn't fall for any guy who doesn't really deserve her. Make sure she's happy." Finn said.

"Don't talk like that, man," Puck shook his head.

"Can you promise me or not? Don't make me ask Sam to do it. I can't ask Kurt, because he's not scary." Finn as begging him now, but he was also baiting him, forcing him to agree with what he was saying.

"Fine, alright. I promise." Puck sighed, reaching up and running a hand through his mohawk.

Once again, he had signed off any chance of getting with Rachel.

First Year After Graduation:

"Hey, little brother, I have to go. Some dude's about to throw up on Barbra Streisand's star and I've gotta either take a picture of it to torture Rachel Berry with or do something to stop it so she doesn't lecture me." Puck was off the phone before his brother even had a chance to comprehend what had just been said and figure out how he was supposed to respond to something like that.

Then, he was making his way towards the star and grabbing the homeless guy by the back of the star, sending him off into the direction of some other actresses star who didn't deserve it even half as much as Barbra did.

And once he was finished with his job, he sent a picture of the unharmed star to Rachel with a smirk, before dialing her number.

"I just saved your idol's star from getting ruined by some stupid, drunk homeless guy who wanted to use it to throw up on."

"Noah, that's incredibly blunt."

"The proper response would have been thank you."

"Did you hurt him?"

"I promise, everybody and everything involved were unharmed. Nothing was hurt in the making of this moment that I'd assumed would give you a reason to love and appreciate me for my bad ass-ness," Puck said with an eye roll.

"Thank you, Noah," Rachel said and he could hear the smile on her voice, knowing she was probably trying to fight it.

Puck sighed as he watched Finn wrap an arm around Rachel's shoulders, sliding it down around her waist with his hand leaning down to cup her ass. The much taller boy led the tiny little girl out of the grand ball room where the party was, and towards the elevator, obviously on their way to a room.

It killed him to know that even though Finn had left her the day of their wedding, he was still getting the girl. He still got to wrap Rachel in his arms and feel her beneath him. He still got to undress her with more than just his eyes and kiss her. Finn was the one who was in bed with her, even though he had broken her heart multiple times and done nothing but try to change her. The best thing he had ever done for her was leave her to give her a chance to make something of herself.

But then he had realized that he couldn't do anything outside of Lima and he'd tried to drag Rachel back with him. That hadn't worked and Rachel had broken up with him, letting him know that her love for him wasn't enough to keep them together anymore. She was moving on and she was starting a relationship with a new guy. Some dude named Brody that she went to school with, who was albeit hated by Kurt for some unbeknown reason. But he was the type of guy that deserved a girl like Rachel because they had similar dreams and goals that matched up for a well planned out future together.

None of that seemed to matter, though, because Rachel had once again fallen under Finn's spell and she was making her way to a hotel room with him so that he could have her way with him.

He was only a little bit excited to know that Rachel had walked out on him before he'd even woken up after sex.

When Santana had called to let him know about Brody's womenizing ways, Puck had immediately gotten on his motorcycle and driven to New York as fast as he could, stopping only when completely necessary. He hurried to where Santana told him to meet her and when the cheating, lying bastard entered the room and Santana made her grand exit, Puck walked out of the closet he'd been in.

"Rachel's a good girl and she deserves a good guy. A guy who will treat her with respect. Now, I see that you're doing what you have to do to survive. I get that it's hard, being a guy into music. You want to do what you love but it's expensive and your parents might not support you or they might not be able to afford it. You have to do what you have to do. But, you shouldn't go around lying about it, especially to girls as sweet, honest and loyal as Rachel. The one thing Rachel hates when it comes to guys she likes is when they lie to her. She builds everything in her life up on trust." Puck said darkly.

"Who the fuck are you? I already met that Finn dude she dated all through high school, the one that needed to make up his mind about where he stood with her." Brody rolled his eyes.

"Noah Puckerman, her best friend," Puck narrowed his eyes at him.

"I'm ashamed, okay? Rachel can do better than a guy who has to prostitute himself to get through school. I didn't want to tell her because I was assumed of it and I just didn't want her to know about this part of my life because I'm not proud of it. I love her," Brody Weston said, a look in his eyes that was full of such honesty it killed Puck to know that there was now a fourth guy in the world that was in love with Rachel Berry and willing to do anything to get her.

And that was why Puck threw the first punch, smirking as Brody staggered backwards. He used that as his advantage to punch him again, knocking him over. He tackled him to the ground and began providing him with punch after punch, directly to the face. Brody tried to fight back, but Puck was the same guy who had managed to survive in Juvy, even if it had been hard. He was strong enough to get out of there without any broken bones or serious injuries. That meant he was one hell of a fighter and he would probably win any fight he got into, as long as it was a fair fight, unlike his one with Rick.

When he was finally finished, he stood up and smirked down at him.

"Stay away from my fellow hot Jew."

"You're in love with her too," Brody said, propping himself up just a little.

"I protect my girls with my life. And Rachel is the most important girl in my life-the only girl that matters to me who isn't family. So stay away from my future wife," Puck glared before he left the hotel room and got on his bike, ready to return to Lima. Rachel didn't need to know that he had ever been there, as long as Brody stayed the hell away.

Noah Puckerman was working on a car at Burt Hummel's garage when he got the phone call. One of the other workers, who had also graduated with Puck and had a long-time grudge with him had been the one to approach him, and that should have been the first signal that something was horribly wrong.

Azimio Adams made his way across the garage with the cordless phone in his hand, a solemn expression on his face as he made his way towards the tall, broad shouldered mohawked boy.

"Puck? You have a phone call," he said softly, doing his best to not make a noise too loud or anything that might give it away that something was terribly wrong.

He didn't seem to realize that the fact that he was being so nice to her was the reason that Puck immediately knew that something was wrong and that it was something that was going to terribly upset him. It had to involve Rachel Berry, his mother or his younger sister. He really prayed that Azimio was just having a bad day.

Puck turned around, grabbing the towel that was draped over his shoulder and wiping his hands off. Then he reached up to wipe the sweat from his forehead before holding a hand out to take the phone. As soon as it was in his palm, Azimio had run off to the other side of the garage.

"Hello?" He said, placing the phone in between his shoulder and his ear.

"Noah?"

It was Rachel. The voice and the fact that it had been his given name. Besides his mother and his younger sister, Rachel was the only one who called him that. And she was the only person who would call him at work anyways, as his sister was in school and his mother was at work, like she was most of the time.

"Rach? What's up? I'm at work right now and Burt's at Washington and Finn's-"he cut himself off at her sniffle and heaving sob at the mention of Finn's name, not finishing the fact that his best friend was suddenly AWOL.

"Noah, that's just the thing. Finn? He's dead," She whispered, and he could hear the tears in her voice.

"What?" He froze.

"There was some sort of an accident. I don't know the exact details-Santana is working on getting herself and I tickets back to Lima. Kurt's already there, he knows the full story but Santana wouldn't allow him to tell me anymore after my breakdown. I'm not exactly sure what-"

"Rachel, stay with Santana and don't leave her side. When you get here, let me know and I'll be there. Until then, just stay with Santana and don't talk to anybody but her, understand? You need some time to breathe and relax and deal." He cut her off.

"Alright," She sniffled. "I really could use one of your famous hugs right now." She whispered.

"I'll be with you soon, I promise," Puck assured her.