He first noticed the light coming out of the choir room, despite the fact everyone was supposed to have said goodbye and gone. He really couldn't explain what drew him to the room, until he saw her.
"Rach?" he called her name clearly startling her, as she turned without wiping her tears from her cheeks. But upon seeing him and fully turning she quickly threw on her Broadway smile.
"Shouldn't you be with Quinn?" she immediately questioned. "I doubt she would approve you looking for me when you've just newly rededicated yourself to one another. She and I. . .we don't, well. . I don't think she'd want you here with me," Rachel continued, ignoring the obvious tears and hoping he would as well.
"She sent me," he lied seamlessly, surprising himself at how easy it came. . . he didn't usually lie to her. But since he started, "We noticed you weren't with the group, and were worried. So she sent me to find you."
"I was just. . ."she started accepting what he said whether or not she believed him.
"It made me think of him too," he interrupted. He saw a glimmer of her honest smile in that moment. "It should have been you," he said. Then at her look of confusion, "It should have been you and him, singing the last song, you know, to say goodbye."
Her response was only a soft nod as she turned back to where her audience once sat, "I miss him. I. . .I miss him everyday, but here now. . .It's so much more palpable. Lima, now, just reminds me of what I've lost," her voice broke before she continued, "even more than what I came from."
He smiled genuinely, "Your New York, babe. Always were."
She chuckled lightly, before he continued. "You and I could do a song, "he suggested and watched as she turned abruptly back toward him, shock and something else unreadable on her face. "You know for him. Since you and he can't sing, and our duets were always about getting him back. One last song for him from us."
She watched him for what seemed like hours, her eyes boring into his and reading the things he never found a way to tell her before she nodded.
They sang, one song that went into another and at some point it stopped being about the person who neither could quite name yet, because it was too soon, and maybe would always be too soon. But there was a moment when it was just them. Then came, "Hey! Puck what are you doing in here? You aren't supposed to be here anymore," came Kurt's distinctive voice.
In response, he couldn't help himself, but he stood and rushed to the door to keep Kurt from peering in further and seeing Rachel without her defenses. "I just felt the need to , uh, jam a bit more before saying goodbye. Okay? I. . .I don't get much time to play anymore," he said stumbling over the excuse.
Kurt just nodded, "Make sure you turn out the lights," he said in his normal tone. Then leaning closer, he whispered, "Take care of her."
"Quinn?" Puck asked, feeling befuddled.
"Yeah, her too," came Kurt's mysterious reply.
He turned back to Rachel, only to see her Broadway mask back up, as she held up his phone, "Quinn's looking for you. She's worried, you should go."
He couldn't think of the right thing to say or how to make her stay, so he only nodded as she scurried off lying his phone down. He called Quinn on his way out.
It was five years later when his single "Words I Couldn't Say" was on all the radio stations.
Quinn called him and suggested maybe they should try again. He didn't know what would be better telling her the song wasn't about her, or that he had no interest in going there again because he was waiting for someone else. Instead, he just told her some bull about they'd had their chance and it didn't work out. She took it, besides she only wanted him when she felt insecure in another relationship and her newest boyfriend had been paying less attention to her.
His phone rang with an unknown number, "I heard your song on the radio, it's beautiful, Noah!" the voice on the phone gushed.
"Rach," he breathed, then couldn't seem to get anything else.
She giggled, "Word's you can't say?"
"Yeah," he breathed. "Can we. . .I mean can I. . I would really like to see you again," he stumbled over his words. Everyone knew she was Broadway's darling, but otherwise after saying goodbye to the choir room, Rachel had moved on from all the old Glee members. No one knew more than what the paparrazi told them.
"Okay."