Manda's Note: Yea...
"Puck, do you promise me that if something ever happens to me you'll remember me? I don't want you to forget me ever."
The little girl put her pinky out to him and he smiled at her. How could he ever forget the little Latina? She'd been a pain in the butt for as long as he could remember. Stealing his ring pops and dragging him out to his tree house to sooth her to sleep well after they were both supposed to be tucked into their beds. Yet here she was looking up at him from a half closed black eye that'd been placed there by her own father's fist.
He can still remember smiling at her that day. They were ten years old and he'd kissed her for the very first time. He promised her that day that he'd never forget her and to the day, now that he's twenty-five years old he's never forgotten her. It was three days after that. Three days after he'd made her that promise that he'd been woken up by the sirens pulling up to the house down the street. He remembers how it'd felt to brush his lips against hers. The way she'd attempted to open her other black and blue eye wider to stare at him. He'd been expecting her to hell at him. To tell him he was gross and had cooties but of course he surprised him just as she always did. She'd cuddled up closer to him and tucked her head into his chest. Like a puzzle piece. His little Tinkerbell.
His mind has always wondered what would have happened had she been alive. Would they have still been close? Would she have been the one for him? He knows he can't let his mind go there. It's a hopeless and dead cause. Yet it always does. Kneeling down beside the old and weathered rock he places the orange Gerber daisy close to the stone.
"Hey Tink"
Just a quiet whisper as ye runs his fingers over the stone clearing away the dirt. He knows that he's the only one who comes to see her. The only one who's ever came to see her. But he does it once every two weeks. Can't let her be alone for too long right? She'd always hated silence.
"I'm getting married tomorrow. Hard to believe isn't it? I wish I could say that I think you'd like Rachel. But I know you wouldn't. "
It wouldn't have mattered though, because he loves Rachel, he's in love with Rachel. He just wonders if things would be different if she was still alive. But he's always wondered that. Just like he'd always wondered if maybe he could have saved her that night. If he'd just gone over there a little bit earlier maybe he could have snuck her out of the house and out to the tree house to lay on the ninja turtles blanket and look up at the stars like they'd done all too often. But he can't change the past. There's no way to go back and change any bit of what had happened and he knows that.
"I wish you were here San, I wish you were standing with me tomorrow. Because you'd do it anyway. Even if you didn't approve. You know that I'd do it for you for whoever you chose …so long as they withstood me trying to scare them away. Because you know I would try and do it. …I probably would have scared them too."
He laughs a little bit, he's sure of himself, he would have scared them away. Because she needed to be protected and he'd be the one to protect her always. At least that's what he'd promised her back then, he hadn't done all to good of a job with that. If he'd actually stood by his word she'd still be there. She'd be getting him ready for his wedding and joking around. He's learned to accept the regrets that he'll always carry around.
"I'm going to be a little bit longer this time on coming back to visit you. I'm taking Rachel to New York City. She wants to see Broadway and all that. I told you, she loves that whole thing. But I'll be back in a couple of weeks. I promise I'll bring you two whole flowers to make up for taking so long. And I know you'll hold me to that one."
If he tries hard enough he can still hear her consenting voice when she didn't get her way, 'I'm never going to speak to you again Puckerman'. She had to have said that a million times when they were growing up.
His phone buzzing in his pocket made him jump up. Glancing at the screen he smiled at Rachel's face. Kissing the flower one last time as he laid it down he stood up.
"Bye Tink. I'll be back soon."
That was the last timeNoah Puckerman went back to visit Santana Lopez. It wasn't that he'd forgotten his concrete angel, it was just that it was time to leave the past in the past and move on with his life. Time to focus everything he had on his wife and their future. Something that his childhood wasn't a part of. He'd never forget her though, just like he promised he'd always remember the time that they'd shared growing up.