All I Ever Wanted

A Puck/Quinn Story

By Brown Eyes Parker

Summary:

All he ever wanted was to get over her. Panged by unrequited love for Quinn Fabray, Noah Puckerman left Lima, Ohio for a new start away from her. Based on songs from Kelly Clarkson's, "All I Ever Wanted" album and "the Carpenters, Gold" album. Major Quick, with Finchel undertones.

Author's Note:

I realized while writing the last chapter of "Without You" that I never explained what happened to Puck, or where he went. The final chapter in "Without You" had barely been posted for an hour when this story literally begged to be written. Besides, I'm curious to find out where Puck and what he's been up to while Rachel and Finn were preparing to say goodbye to each other.

I won't be using flowers in this story, I'm thinking it might be a little darker and grittier than "Without You" was. But only slightly. (August 1st, 2011_)

Prologue:

"There was a man, a lonely man. . . who lost his love through his indifference. A heart that cared, that went unshared until it died within his silence. And Solitaire's the only game in town, and every road that takes him, takes him down. And by himself it's easy to pretend, he'll never love again. And keeping to himself he plays the game, without her love it always ends the same. . . while life goes all around him everywhere, he's playing Solitaire. ."

Out of all the songs that he sang, Solitaire was his most popular. His regulars would request it on a nightly basis, and people who heard it for the first time usually asked him to sing it again.

He figured peopled liked it because Noah sang it like he had lived it. But Jasper Hamilton never asked questions, he hadn't when the young man with the Mohawk had showed up at his bed & breakfast five months earlier, and he wasn't going to start. He was pretty sure, that if he gave Noah Puckerman his space, the kid would eventually come around and tell him the whole story.

"You're doing a good job tonight," Jasper said when Puck had stopped for a water break.

"You say that every night," Puck replied, eyeing the older man wearily.

"I mean it every night," Jasper answered, tossing him a bottle of water.

"Thanks." Puck took the cap off and took a long drink. When he lowered the bottle, he noticed that Jewel Hamilton had come up and captured her husband in conversation. He didn't care, he had to get back to his audience anyways. He wiped his mouth, and stashed his water behind the bar.

As he tuned up his guitar, his mind drifted to the first time he had come to the bed & breakfast. He had checked in, and found the bar. . . planning to drink until Quinn Fabray was just a fuzzy memory. But Jasper had seen right through him, and given him a Coke instead. Two hours later, he had a place to stay as long as he needed. . . he just needed to promise that he would help around the bed & breakfast, and that he wouldn't drink.

A week later, Jewel had caught him singing while he was folding towels for the pool. And that's when he had gotten a gig singing nights in the restaurant.

In the past five months, Jasper and Jewel had become the grandparents he had never had. And he was pretty sure that he had gotten over Quinn. He only sang Solitaire because of the earlier days. . . when he still loved her so much that he couldn't breathe.

He had learned to breathe again, but the song had stuck. . . mostly because of the emotion he sang with when he had first started performing at the Moonstruck inn.

Little did Noah Puckerman know, that soon the ability to breathe would go away again.

TBC. . .

Author's Note II:

Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions even?

Holly August 5, 2011_