"San? Sanny?"
Santana jumped, startled by her ex-boyfriend's childhood nickname for her. She quickly recovered and slammed her locker shut.
"What do you want, Noah?" She replied coldly.
"I... you looked... you sorta looked like you were gonna puke, so I was just checking on you," he stammered. Noah Puckerman, the King of Smooth, stuttering?
"Why do you care? You made it perfectly clear to me three months ago that you no longer care." She snapped.
"I-What? No! I care! I was just... daiting Lauren."
"Was? As in past tense? What was he talking about?" she wondered, while another part of her brain screamed, "TELL HIM! You're gonna get mighty fat in the next few months, if you haven't already. He's gonna find out sooner or later!" Santana knew that she was lucky that she was no longer required to wear the tight Cheerios! Uniform, as she already had a slight baby bump. It was a measure of how skinny she had been before that, three months pregnant, she barely looked chubby.
Puck cleared his throat and Santana was jolted back to reality.
"Was?" She inquired. Puck squirmed, visibly uncomfortable.
"Yeah... I broke up with her. She...she's a great friend, but she's not the one for me. There's someone else. There's always been someone else..." Puck trailed off and Santana felt her heart sink. Great. She was pregnant with his child and he was in love with some other girl.
"Noah? Can we talk? Like, after Glee?" She blurted. He looked startled but nodded- he knew from almost 17 years of friendship that she only ever called him Noah when something was seriously wrong.
"Sure. Why? What's wrong? Wanna go back to my house? My mom's at working and Sarah's at some friend's house," he offered, before quickly adding, "not like that." As if she would imagine that he meant it like that. It was the "like that" of their relationship that had gotten her into that mess. "I meant so we could have some privacy. You seem upset," he added softly when she didn't reply.
"Yeah. Great. No. I'm fine," she stammered dazedly. He nodded, but she knew he didn't buy it. He knew her too well. And Noah Puckerman was a lot of things but he wasn't stupid. Not about Santana, anyway.
*Break*
He lead her to his rusty old truck and they piled in. The drove the whole seven and a half minutes to his house in complete silence, without even the radio to ease the tension. She followed him to his room and plopped down on his bed. They'd had some pretty good times in here. No. What was she thinking? It was those "good times" that had gotten them... gotten her... into this mess. She glanced up and saw that he was watching her expectantly.
"I- I'm, oh Noah. I'm pregnant," she whispered, looking down at her lap, too afraid to meet his gaze.
"What?" Puck asked, looking like he hoped he'd misunderstood.
"I'm pregnant with your...our... kid." Santana repeated. "And I know you don't care about me, I can take care of myself and the baby without you, I just thought you deserved to know." She babbled until he held up a hand to stop her.
"What are you talking about, Tanny? This is just as much my mess as yours. Of course I want to be involved. And why would you think I don't care?" he reached out and grabbed her shaking hands.
"It's just- I've always just been the girl you turned to when there wasn't someone else. I always came second. To Q, RuPaul, Weezy, and even Zizes!"
"No, San. I always cared about you, and no, that's not just a past tense.. I do care about you! So much! Didn't you hear me earlier? You are that "other girl." The amazing, beautiful, mother of my child that I love so much! And I promise to always be there for you and our baby, whether or not we decide to keep him or her." He said before adding, "look, can you spend the night? We need to have a long talk." She just nodded.
