Disclaimer: Ownership is neither claimed nor implied.
A/N: "Do you know, what it feels like in this world, for a girl..."
"Make it right with the girls," Puck muttered. "What the fuck does that mean?" he asked himself. "Do I have to buy them dinner first?" he mocked.
Puck sighed as he rounded the corner and saw Finn acting all noble and nice, accepting the new kid's takeover of PoisonBerry. Puck also saw the look that Rachel gave Finn when he was talking to Jerkoff St Jerkface. She was still totally into Frankenteen, she was only messing with Jerkoff to make Finn jealous. "Way to mess with his head, StreisenBerry," he whispered almost silently. "So that's making it right with the girls, huh? Bending over and taking it right up the ass?" he said to himself and scoffed at how much of a loser his former best friend was. Then Puck saw Artie roll past with Asian Goth Girl on his knee. "Or maybe that's making it right with the girls," he mumbled, frowning to himself. "Go Wheels."
"Ok, so how do I go about this?" Puck thought as he sat in the library with his feet propped up on the table. Surreptitiously, over the top of a book - he had no idea which book - he watched Quinn do her homework. "Crap, she looks really tired," he noticed, knowing that really, despite his claims that he wanted to step up and be a good dad, he wasn't doing jack shit about it. Puck watched her close her books and fill her bag with them, watched her slowly and with difficulty, stand and haul the huge, weighty bag onto her shoulder. Puck watched her tired face, noticed her dull, limp, lifeless hair, noticed how 'un-Quinn-like' she looked, how tired, how drained. "I know how I'm going to make this right," Puck said then realised he'd said it aloud, he looked around, embarrassed, he hoped no one had noticed. "Let me take your bag for you," Puck said quietly at Quinn's shoulder. "What class do you have?" he asked her, matching his speed to her slower, lumbering pace.
"English," Quinn replied breathlessly as she waddled slightly less than gracefully towards her class, grateful not to have to carry even more extra weight.
Puck escorted her, made sure she was sat, with her bag tucked away under the desk. "I'll be back after class, wait here for me," he instructed then left the room. Instead of going straight to class, Puck went to the bathroom. "Mom, I have a question for you," he said as his mom answered the phone.
"Sure Noah, fire away," Mrs Puckerman said over the hum of the vacuüm cleaner.
"Is it safe for Quinn to go to the spa, maybe have a massage, a treatment or something?" Puck asked his mom.
"It should be, one of my girlfriends went to one right here in Lima when she was pregnant, they do a maternity package. Why?" Mrs Puckerman asked, wondering if Noah was actually going to get off his ass and do something for the poor girl.
"It's just that she looks really tired, worn out," Puck explained, sighing heavily. "I just think maybe she could do with a pick-me-up," he added, giving a self-conscious shrug, frowning, wondering how he was going to pay for it. "Which place is it?" he asked
"Perennial Glow, you know, on North Main Street?" Mrs Puckerman replied. "I'm sure she will appreciate it, Noah, it's nice to see you take some responsibility for a change," she added. Puck didn't say anything, he just rolled his eyes and pulled a face, thankful his mom couldn't see him.
"Yeah, hi, I'm looking for some information," Puck said nervously as his call was answered. "Yeah, my girlfriend," he hoped no one actually overheard him say that, Quinn especially, she'd throw a fit, "is pregnant and I want to arrange something for her, something, erm," he broke off, getting embarrassed. Puck listened for a moment while the woman made a few suggestions. "That would be really cool," he said to one of the suggestions. "How much is that?" he asked bluntly. "Wow, as much as that," he murmured, not totally surprised that it would be so expensive.
"We can tailor any package to suit any pocket," the woman replied, her tone so condescending that Puck wanted to hang up. "We also teach massage to expectant couples to help the mother through labour," she informed Puck.
"That would be really cool," Puck said with a nod, wondering how he was going to afford all this but determined to do so. "So I have another question," he said, his tone changing as he smiled his trademark little half-smile into the phone. "Two actually. First is, do you have a pool, second is, do you have a pool cleaner?"
"We do and we don't," the woman replied. Puck could hear the smile in her voice now, he could picture her leaning forewards, her arms straight, her hands planted firmly on the desk. He imagined her white uniform unbuttoned down to there, her tanned skin on display, her boobs almost making a break for it, right into his...
"Well, I'm an independent contractor," Puck said, settling down to offer his services, maybe in exchange for theirs, hers at the very least. Especially if she looked like she sounded on the phone. Puck pictured the statuesque blond on the other end of the line. She would be as tall as Finn, in her spike-heeled shoes, obviously. She would have boobs like Quinn's, like Quinn's pert and juicy knocked up boobs, not her pre-knocked up boobs, they were tiny. She would have lips like Santana's, 'cos man, those full, pouty Latina lips wrapped around his...yeah, concentrate. She would have legs like Britt, 'cos the girl might have rocks in her head but man, those pins were endless. She should have eyes like Quinn's too, 'cos they could make a man lose his soul, he could drown in them. Puck swallowed and brought himself back to the conversation "I offer all types of pool services," he explained, "we could maybe come to an arrangement?" he suggested.
"Are you free on Saturday?" Puck asked Quinn after dinner.
Quinn looked up from drying a plate, her mind on a million other things. "What?" she asked, frowning slightly, feeling very, very tired and emotional.
"I asked if you have plans for Saturday, the afternoon to be more specific," Puck repeated.
"Ah, no, er, no, no plans, I don't think, no," Quinn stuttered as she tried to make her exhausted mind work.
"Well, don't make any, I have a surprise for you," Puck told Quinn with a shy smile then took himself off out of the kitchen and loped off upstairs to his room.
"I have no idea," Mrs Puckerman said in reply to Quinn's questioning look.
"I think I might go to bed, if that's all right," Quinn sighed once they'd finished with the clean up.
"Good night, Quinn," Mrs Puckerman said gently. She sighed and shook her head as she watched the young girl slowly walk up the stairs. "Noah, you have a lot to answer for," she added quietly to herself.
Quinn knocked on Puck's bedroom door and waited till he shouted. "Yeah," Puck called from inside the room, Quinn heard the music turn down a little.
"It's me, I'm really tired tonight, I think I'm just going to go to bed," Quinn replied, opening the door to speak to Puck.
"Do you really want to go to bed right now? It's only six thirty," Puck said, checking the clock at the side of his bed. "How about if you just lie here with me, maybe let me rub your back, maybe you'll feel better," he suggested.
"Ok," Quinn sighed and sat down on the edge of Puck's bed. She toed off her shoes before she swung her legs up.
"Here," Puck said quietly and indicated for Quinn to put her feet in his lap. Puck sat leaned up against the headboard, his legs crossed at the ankle. Quinn turned slightly and lay across the bed, her feet resting on Puck's hard, muscled thighs. Puck started to massage one foot, just rubbing it, pressing hard into the ball of her foot. Quinn yelped and pulled her foot away. "S'up?" Puck asked, pouting a little.
"That hurt," Quinn replied, gingerly replacing her foot. "Don't press so hard, I don't like it when it's hard," she complained.
"Oh baby," Puck laughed. "You are such a liar, you love it when it's hard, really, really hard," he murmured suggestively, throwing Quinn's feet off his thighs and crawling over her. Puck looked down into Quinn's glowing, green eyes, his hands planted on the bed at her shoulders, his knees at her hips. "And right now, it is rock hard," he groaned.
Quinn's hands wrapped around Puck's wrists as she laughed up into his face. "You know what I meant," she said, blushing at Puck changing her words into something quite filthy as usual.
"Yep, I do," Puck agreed quietly and lowered his head to let their lips touch very slightly, his tingled immediately on contact. "Have you got that stupid lip gloss on again? That bee sting stuff?" he asked, frowning, pouting and trying to look down to see his lips.
"Sorry," Quinn replied, scrunching her face and her shoulders up. "You can wipe it off if you want, there's a tissue in my pocket," she offered.
"Even better, you reach over there for the ones on the nightstand," Puck suggested, his voice husky. Quinn did so. As she stretched her arm over her head, Puck bent a little lower, his chest making contact with Quinn's, hers pressing up into him as she reached for the tissues. Puck felt her stomach press up into his too, felt the little knock from inside her. "Wow, was that her?" he asked, leaning away from Quinn to look down at her stomach. Quinn nodded, her hand resting gently on the upper slope of her stomach, just under her boobs. "Can I look?" he asked then swallowed when Quinn nodded. Puck's hand trembled a little as he lifted Quinn's shirt up and bared her stomach to his gaze. He settled himself back down, sitting over her thighs. Puck's hands landed very, very gently on Quinn's rounded stomach, he looked up for permission as his hands came into contact with the stretchy waistband of her pants. Quinn nodded, lifting her head a little and resting one hand underneath it, watching Puck's hands as they trembled close to her skin, so close, she could feel the warmth of his hands. Quinn's blood flowed through her like molten lava as Puck slowly tugged the waistband of her pants down to rest under her bump.
"You can touch," Quinn encouraged, melting inside at the tenderness of his hands, at the look on his face.
"I can really feel her moving," Puck whispered, wide-eyed, excited. "This is awesome," he added with a huge grin. Puck couldn't resist, he leaned down to kiss her again, ignoring the tingle in his lips, ignoring the tingle in his tongue. Puck deepened the kiss, he felt so warm and tingly all over.
"Argghh," Quinn squealed, pressing her head back into the mattress to get away from Puck just a little.
"S'up?" Puck asked, a frown on his face at the look of fear on Quinn's. "Jeez, just get over it," he sighed. "So sometimes we get it on," he said with a shrug, "it's not like no one knows we did this before, right?"
"Your face," Quinn cried. "Look at it," she urged, shoving him off her. "Go, look at it," she insisted.
"Ah crap," Puck sighed as he saw the damage. "Mom," he called from the top of the stairs. "It's that allergy thing again," he told her. Puck started to cough and to wheeze a little. "Yeah, I think we need to go to the emergency room," he informed his mom as he looked down at his hands and saw his fingers starting to swell.
By the time they'd reached the hospital, Puck's eyes were almost closed, his nose looked as though he'd been ten rounds in the boxing ring, even his ears were swollen.
"Well, Mr Puckerman," the ER doctor said jovially as he checked Puck over. "It seems as if we're having some sort of allergic reaction here," he announced.
"No fucking shit, Sherlock," Puck mumbled, barely intelligible, through incredibly swollen lips.
"And how did this happen?" the doctor asked as he drew up the shot to give Puck.
"I kissed my girlfriend," Puck tried to explain, though even he couldn't understand what he was saying.
"Sorry? I didn't get that," the doctor said, looking at Puck and trying to puzzle it out.
"He said he kissed his girlfriend," Puck's sister translated very loudly for him.
"Oh," the doctor replied, not sure what else to say to that.
"I think he's allergic to my lip gloss," Quinn muttered quietly, her hands resting on her stomach, holding it gently, giving herself and her baby comfort.
"Best advice would be don't wear it again," the doctor said with a firm nod. "Ready?" he asked Puck and whipped down the blue sheet covering his legs. "There we are," he sighed with satisfaction as he stuck the needle into the outer edge of Puck's hard thigh.
"Jeez," Puck cried, sitting half way up in the bed. "What the hell was that? A freakin' telegraph pole?" he demanded.
"Oh stop being such a baby, it was just a tiny, little scratch," Quinn mocked, nudging Puck's shoulder. "Will he need to stay in overnight?" she asked the doctor.
"Wow, you're all done already?" Mrs Puckerman asked as she came into the cubicle and saw the difference in Puck. "Your face is going down already," she nodded. "So what caused it this time?" she asked.
"Her lip gloss," Puck grumbled as he leaned back against the pillows. "That bee sting stuff, I told you, don't use it," he pouted.
"Or you could just not kiss me," Quinn suggested. Puck didn't actually reply, he just made a noise that Quinn took to mean "right, whatever."
"It is the worst reaction you've had though, Noah," his mom said worriedly, biting her lip. "What's going to happen if you get stung while you're cleaning pools?" she asked.
"I'd suggest he gets issued with an epi-pen and taught how to use it," the doctor replied. "If he gets stung and he starts to have a reaction, he should inject himself and he should be fine."
"You should have seen him," Quinn giggled to Mercedes, "his face was enormous, he looked like Will Smith in that movie with Eva Mendes." Both Mercedes and Tina giggled at the description.
"Thanks for the sympathy," Puck called across the choir room.
"What's that all about?" Finn asked, not really directing his question at either Quinn or Puck, he still couldn't bring himself to actually speak to them after their betrayal.
"Quinn made me swell to enormous proportions last night," Puck sighed, making his words suggestive, giving Quinn the look, the sexy little half-smile look. "Epic proportions. I got so huge she couldn't take it, I had to go to the emergency room for treatment," he added with a grin. Finn looked both scandalised and disgusted. "Chill," Puck said and rolled his eyes. "She had some lip gloss on and when I kissed her I had an allergic reaction to it," he explained with more honesty. "My face and hands swelled up and I needed a shot. So I'm allergic to bee stings, no biggie," he shrugged. Finn frowned and looked disgruntled, probably at the thought of Puck and Quinn kissing. Santana shot Quinn a look filled with such venom that if she'd been the allergic one, she'd probably have to get rushed straight to the emergency room right this second.
"Alrighty," Mr Schue sighed. "Everyone to the auditorium please," he directed. The version of Like A Prayer worked out really well, especially with the huge choir behind them, adding and blending their voices in harmony with New Directions. Actually, it was quite a spectacular wall of sound. The end of Madonna Week. Sadly. And some of the guys still had to make things right with the girls.
"I can't believe you organised all this," Quinn sighed as Puck rubbed her back, following the directions of the masseuse. "Oh God, there, right there, ohhhh," she groaned with pleasure.
"Have you thought about a water birth?" the masseuse asked Quinn, giving her an interested smile, her eyes drifting over Quinn's fecund body. Quinn sat cross-legged on cushions on the floor with Puck behind her, his legs spread open to either side of her. He watched over Quinn's shoulder with one eyebrow raised as the woman tried desperately to flirt with the oblivious Quinn.
"No," Quinn replied. "Actually, I haven't thought about any type of birth, I've kind of been ignoring the fact that it's going to happen," she sighed and pulled a worried face.
"If you opted for a water birth," the masseuse said, nodding with understanding of Quinn's fears, "Puck could be in the water with you, massaging your back if that's what you need," she suggested. "I teach a lot of massage methods for water births," she added. Quinn nodded with interest but didn't make any sort of commitment to the suggestion.
An hour later Quinn was enjoying a manicure and a pedicure, the only treatments she really felt safe at having from the long list on offer. "Where did Puck go?" she suddenly thought. "I bet he's ogling barely dressed women somewhere," she grumbled to herself.
Puck was actually taking the opportunity to clean the pool as it was currently unoccupied. He'd worked out a trade with the manager, the woman he'd spoken to that first day. Puck was to clean the pool once a week, work three nights a week in the gym, replenishing towels, keeping the machines wiped down and sanitary and offering support to women who needed it while working out.
"How are you getting on?" the manager asked, walking up behind Puck as he did his stuff.
"Fine," Puck replied with a glance over his shoulder. "Quinn's getting her nails done right now," he added, recognising from the look in the older woman's eyes that she was interested. Puck wasn't, he didn't want to be interested, he wanted to give his whole focus and commitment to Quinn in the hope that she wouldn't give their baby away. Puck knew that mentioning Quinn's name would bring her back into the frame even though she wasn't in the room.
"That's good," the woman replied, her hand raised as though to touch Puck's chest. "She'll be a while," she added huskily.
"Stella," Puck said, looking the manager in the eye, "may I call you Stella?" he belatedly asked, he waited for her nod of assent. "I know you're interested, I can see you're attracted and many, many other times I would have responded to that, but now my life has changed, my feelings have changed," he explained. "I have to think about Quinn and the baby, no, it's more than that, I want to think about them, need to think about them, they're the most important people on the planet to me," he said with an intensity he'd rarely ever felt for anything. "I never thought I'd say this," he admitted, "but I really want to stay faithful to just one girl. To Quinn. I think I finally get it," he said with a soft laugh.
Quinn bit her lip and sucked in a breath. She stayed hidden out of sight, just inside the locker room. He got it, he really did, he got what it felt like for her, what she needed. Quinn knew that right now, in this moment, what she needed was for Puck to declare his loyalty to her, to leave the cougars and the other girls, to stay with her and help her through this.
"She must be very important to you," Stella murmured. "I could end your employment right now, before it's really started," she threatened lightly.
"Yes you could," Puck nodded, "but it wouldn't change anything, my answer is still no, I'm sorry," he said quietly then walked away.
Stella watched Puck's retreating back, watched the way his muscles moved under his shirt and groaned silently. "Did you hear that?" she called over her shoulder.
"Yes," Quinn whispered huskily as she walked into the pool area. "Thanks, Aunt Stella," she added, going to the older woman for a hug. "I felt it, I know I felt it, I thought he felt it too, I just needed to hear him say it."
Stella Fabray Hewitt hugged her niece tightly. She'd never understand how her brother and sister-in-law could have abandoned this beautiful girl in her arms, but if she had her way, they would do their best to make amends to her, they would move heaven and earth to make it right.