Author's note: Here's the second half! And, oh my God! You guys are f*ing awesome! I've never had so many alerts for one chapter in my entire writing career! Also, the guy Puck is talking to in the first scene is the other guy that threw the slushie in Finn's and Quinn's face. Not the Karofsky guy. He's also one of the guys that ganged up on Finn in the locker room with the sharpie in "Mattress", and he's the guy that Finn tackled and beat up on in "Mash up" before Coach Tanaka made the Glee/Football ultimatum. So were those enough examples? Have an idea about who it is I'm referring to? I have no clue as to his first name, so I just picked one at random. Oh, and I just made the second guy up. So don't try to scope him out in any of the shows. Anyway.

Music suggestions: 'I didn't want to need you' by Heart, 'Sweet Caroline (glee cast)' by Glee Cast.

Disclaimer: Definitely don't own Glee.

Protecting Berry: The Plan

What was wrong with him? When did he start caring so much about Rachel and her well being at all, much less this much? He was turning into such a girl. First choosing glee over football for her, and then willing to drop everything for Quinn and saddle up with a kid before he even graduated high school...and now this.

He was standing beneath the bleachers the following day, doing one of the handful of things that he did best: blackmailing his fellow man. Scuffing his sneakers against the dried out dirt, he waited for his next client of the day to appear. Not the first...and certainly not the last.

Brad Azimio stepped beneath the bleachers a few minutes later. Standing up to his full height confidently, Puck pulled the cash out of his front pocket and held it out for his bigger teammate to take before Azimio could say anything.

"I have a proposition for you." Puck said authoritatively with a raised eyebrow, hiking the money just out of Azimio's reach just as his hand pinched the extended bill. Brad nodded, meaning he was listening. Extending the money back out, Puck let Brad take the money. "Back off of Rachel Berry. You remember the rule."

Brad looked down at the $20 incredulously.

"You really expect anyone to respect that "Puck immunity" rule anymore? Especially for only $20? You're not even dating her anymore. Forget it." Brad declared resentfully, turning around to leave.

"Dude, you still owe me $80 from that bet you lost to me." Puck reminded him matter-of-factly, crossing his arms over his chest menacingly. "And I would hate to tell Coach T that another of his first string football players is taking steroids."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Azimio retorted too quickly, turning back around to face Puck, listening once again.

"Dude. You're head is twice the size it was last year. And I'm not talking about the one in your pants. Skittles." Puck said haughtily, a smug grin on his face.

"Oh, God! You have been checking me out!" Brad exclaimed scandalously. "I thought Holmes was just making that up. You really have gone homo."

"Relax, man. I like playing with girl parts too much to go gay." Puck tossed back reassuringly, waving the comment off. "The only junk I'm checking out is my own. Besides, do you honestly think I'd call a man's nuts 'skittles'? Dude, honestly. Those are totally girl's words. Your girlfriend's, to be exact."

"When have you talked to my Brooke?" Brad snarled possessively, taking a step forward.

"Whoa, now." Puck said coaxingly, mirroring a step back and holding his hands out in a warding off gesture. "I've got no interest in that particular brand of Cheerio cool-aid. Your girlfriend, however, makes Brittany look like a rocket scientist when it comes to common sense. What kind of girlfriend discusses things like her newborn nephew having bigger stones than her fully grown boyfriend? Apparently, she's been putting in a lot of 'down time' with you and she's noticed a difference. She really does talk about everything with her Cheerio friends. Unfortunately, there is no confidentiality cheerleader-to-cheerleader code of silence. And let's just say that I've had that line tapped for years." Puck finished smugly, crossing his arms over his chest as he regained the upper hand once again.

"Alright, alright. Okay, I'll back off. Just don't say anything." Brad admitted frantically, pleading.

"And make sure you get the rest to lay off, too." Puck threatened, tacking on the final constituent of the blackmailing package. The next line slipped out before he could check it. "I don't like it when anyone bullies my girlfriend."

"You mean you're dating that freak job again? Do you have some kind of crazy problem?" Azimio asked, shock and a little repulsion settling on his face as if he'd just walked past a bad smell.

"Like I said," Puck explained, a ghost of a smile lighting his face. "I like playing with girl parts. And my girl's got a set of the most killer legs that I need to get reacquainted with. Like now."

Stepping up into Brad's face, Puck glared darkly. Even though the larger linebacker had a good five inches and 90 pounds on Puck, Puck still managed to intimidate and neutralize his larger teammate.

"So...are we finished here?" Puck asked in finality, an eyebrow raised in question. Azimio nodded his acquiescence.

ooooovooo*ooooooxoo*ooooosooo

She was confronting him. Again. This time in the middle of a crowded hallway after school let out that Thursday. He was beginning to think it was physically impossible for her to antagonize him away from prying eyes and ears. She had to have her audience to tear him another one. He'd been busting his ass for days, bringing people around to his way of thinking. He'd even resorted to using the "my mom has known your mom since she was in high school and I'll talk her into pulling out the embarrassing baby pictures and posting them on myspace" card.

Did Rachel even know how hard he'd worked to take out her aggressors in a passive, non-violent fashion, despite his caveman-like tendency to protect his women in a very physical, very hostile manner? He had a feeling she would like that even less than most. Look at how well he did at not relying on those tendencies. So what was her damn problem?

Oh yeah, he was about to let her have it, too.

"Do you have any idea how many favors I called in? How many figurative arms I've had to twist? And you're what? Pissed at me?" Puck hissed, dragging Rachel along and pressing her into the presently empty glee classroom. "Un-be-lievable."

He turned and shut the door behind him, locking it as well. The other glee members would just have to look on through the glass panel in the door.

"You exploited half of the high school elite, Noah!" Rachel exclaimed, her arms rising to spread wide open in emphasis.

"But I didn't physically threaten anyone." Puck retorted incredulously. He then frowned, confused. "Wait. How'd you even find out...Nevermind. I thought that you would like that."

"I'm happy that you're growing, really Noah. You're making progress." Rachel said gently with a small smile, clasping her arms in front of her and rocking on the balls of her feet. "But did you really need to metaphorically emasculate Brian Holmes by threatening to tell his girlfriend, two younger sisters, his mother, and his stepmother about his...downstairs issues?"

"It's not my fault Holmes has a big mouth and too many women in his life." Puck answered casually, slouching down into the nearest chair and looking up at her innocently. "One really shouldn't talk about sleeping around unprotected and knocking up a college girl with more STDs than a cheap prostitute, among other things. You'd think with all the estrogen in his environment, he wouldn't be so dense."

"And what do you have to say about the machine that keeps the ice rink frozen being sabotaged, resulting in the hockey team being unable to practice for the rest of the week before their big playoff this weekend?" Rachel asked accusingly, one corner of her mouth quirking up before she could stop it. She took a offensive stance in front of him, her hands clasped behind her back and her feet shoulder width apart.

Puck adopted a similar pose as he stared up at her, crossing his arms over his chest with one leg extended out. His extended foot tapped a slow beat against her ankle, almost absentmindedly to the beat of a familiar song. Her song.

"I plead the fifth. And if anyone asks, I was with you from the end of fourth period to the beginning of sixth period yesterday, 'practicing mash up choices'." Puck answered, the suggestion clear in his tone and the wag of his eyebrows at the end.

"But I was alone in here yesterday during that time. That's my free period." Rachel said in a bemused tone, a slight frown creasing her forehead.

"Even better." Puck replied in a smug tone. "Don't act so surprised that I remembered that. I may not remember 90 percent of that crap you spewed out while we were together, but you should know I'd remember little details such as 'free makeout periods'."

"What am I supposed to do with you?" Rachel asked rhetorically, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.

"I could think of a few things." Puck said, his voice a silky-smooth whisper, hooking his foot around her calf and jerking her in. She stumbled forward, her hands bracing the impact on his chest and her legs straddling one knee as she hovered over him.

"Noah..." Rachel began reluctantly, her eyes looking into his shyly as she tried to stand upright. "I..."

Puck stopped her, his hands resting on her hips. His gaze dropped away from hers, unable to keep her gaze.

"Tell me you haven't thought about us since we broke up." Puck asked quietly, his thumbs rubbing light circles against the hem of her shirt. Then he looked back up into her eyes resolutely. "Tell me that what we had wasn't kinda awesome."

"Noah..." Rachel said quietly, smiling slightly at petulance she caught glimmering in his eyes. He didn't want to be the only one that quite obviously had. She brought her right leg around so she could sit on his knee between his legs. "We weren't even together for one school week."

"Rachel, look." Puck began, wrapping one arm around her waist while he rested the other on her left knee. He was pulling out the big guns, using her first name. He gazed into her eyes earnestly, pulling her in like he had when he first asked her out. He knew chicks really liked that honesty crap. "We got started off on the wrong foot, going out with each other for the wrong reasons. And what's worse, we didn't even try to stay together when we admitted to them. We're both holding out for someone that refuses to see what's really good for them. How better off they'd be. But you know what? Neither of us needs them. We're better off together than with our respective halves of the golden couple."

Rachel stayed silent, her hands in her lap as she pulled at a loose thread on her plaid skirt.

"Besides, my mom was pissed when she found out we broke up before she got the chance to invite you over for dinner. She would still like for you to come over for dinner sometime. To try and convince you that whatever I did, you should forgive me for being a jackass and take me back. As if it's my fault we broke up." Puck finished, scoffing at such a thought.

"Really? Those were your mother's words?" Rachel asked in a dry tone.

One corner of Puck's mouth curved upwards. Progress. Victory was his.

"I may have paraphrased." Puck retorted casually, shrugging before he jiggled his knee a few times to unsettle her. Her hands latched onto his biceps for balance.

"You are incorrigible." Rachel said, a wide smile lighting up her face.

"I don't know what that means, so I'm just going to exchange that word with incredibly sexy." Puck said teasingly, sending her his charm smile.

"So, you think we should give it another go, Caroline?" Puck asked in a casual tone, bringing his hand up to stroke her cheek endearingly. "Perhaps try for a whole week this time? Hell, maybe we could be ambitious and go for two."

He was trying real hard to keep the eagerness out of his tone. That's all he needed, Rachel Berry thinking he turned into some sort of sappy female with feelings, like Kurt.

"I really like that you call me that. I've never had a serious boyfriend, much less one that gave me an affectionate nickname. It's really sweet." Rachel said quietly, a sweet smile on her lips.

He might even get somewhere with her this time. Like under the shirt. Or the skirt. Hell, he was sure if he tried hard enough, he'd talk her into letting him at both. All he needed from her was acceptance.

"Could we go on a real date this time?" Rachel asked hopefully, breaking into his wandering thoughts. "Like to the museum or the symphony? I've heard great reviews about the one in the next town over." Rachel continued brightly.

"How about dinner at the diner my mom works at and I let you pick a movie?" Puck negotiated, his hand moving to the back of her neck to massage it gently.

"At the theater or rental?" Rachel asked cautiously, her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"I was thinking about the drive-in over in Cairo." Puck answered slowly, shifting underneath her so he could sit up. "Or if you'd rather stay here in town, we could check out what's playing around here."

"Ooh, could we please go to Cairo? I heard they're having an "all-time classics" day this weekend." Rachel asked excitedly, bouncing slightly on his knee. "I'd really like to see West Side Story on a movie screen again."

"Alright, then. It's a date." Puck agreed. A mischievous gleam then entered his expression. "Could we make out now?"

Rachel rolled her eyes and shook her head, but let him pull her face closer to his. He was a really good kisser.

oooooooaooo*ooooooocoo

Mercedes turned and held out her hand with a smug, expectant expression.

"Oh, you so lost that bet." Mercedes informed Kurt as he frowned through the glass panel. "I told you he'd make another move and that she'd take him back."

Kurt dug his wallet out of his backpack and fished around for the $5 he'd put down saying that the former Puckleberry couple was finished for good. He put the money in her hand and returned his gaze to the couple kissing in the classroom. He was tempted to knock on the glass loudly. He honestly didn't see how she got all the yummiest guys in glee. She didn't dress right at all to complement her figure.

"But I've still got five on Mr. Schu's marriage not lasting. That woman was bat-crazier than Ms. Pillsbury." Kurt stated resolutely, giving into temptation and rapping his knuckles on the glass loudly.

oooooeooo*ooosooooo*oooooaoooo

Wow. This chapter was, like, twice the size as the first one. I seem to be making that a habit, lately. So...love it? Hate it? Somewhere in-between? Until Finn breaks it off with Quinn and starts following Rachel around like a whipped puppy, I'm not giving up on Puck and Rachel as a couple (and perhaps not even then). And I couldn't resist incorporating Mercedes and Kurt into the end. I could totally see everyone making bets on each other, for any and everything, including couples. And Rachel and Puck complemented each other so well, had such great chemistry in their one episode together, how could anyone else in the show have not noticed it? I have got to stop talking!