A/N: I can't begin to even tell you how overwhelmingly appreciative I am of everyone who reviewed and added this story to their alerts. Thank you! And please read and review, I want to know what everyone thinks. Again I don't own Glee, or the songs used in this story.
The final bell had rung fifteen minutes ago and Puck was leaning against his truck, waiting for Rachel. He knew from the couple of times that he had driven her home before that he shouldn't have taken her this long to get to the parking lot. Maybe she changed her mind…Puck thought. The thought relieved Puck because honestly he had no idea what he was going to say to Rachel if she did show up. What was he suppose to tell her? All Puck knew is that he needed to talk to her, about feelings. He knew Rachel could do feelings; she was after all a girl. But this was him he was talking about. He didn't do feelings, he didn't do relationships and he sure as hell didn't do whatever he was about to do now, if Rachel ever showed up.
~~~~*~~~~
Inside the school, Rachel stood at her locker. She had already put all of the books she needed into her bag and had called her Dads to let them know she was getting a ride home from someone in Glee. She was happy that they didn't ask who because right now, Rachel wasn't sure who it would be. Instead, they told her they were going to be going out for a while and would be home later in the evening. She knew that Noah was waiting, maybe, for her out in the parking lot but for some reason she couldn't manage to make her feet move. She had wanted this attention, whatever it was, from Noah since he walked away from the football field, but now she didn't know what he was doing. While they were never anything but civil towards each other, Rachel saw absolutely no reason for him to want to talk to her. And what about? What could he possibly have to say to her? But something deep inside Rachel made her take the first step towards the parking lot. It would kill her to not know what he wanted, and she needed him to drive her home.
~~~~*~~~~
Puck was about to give up on Rachel even showing up. The parking lot was completely empty with the exception of a few cars he assumed belonged to teachers. The door to the school opened and a few students walked out, but the door closed again without Rachel. He threw his bag into the bed of his truck and opened the door. He was about to climb in before he heard someone calling his name.
"Noah!" Puck turned to see Rachel walking quickly towards him.
"Where have you been Berry?" Puck sounded angrier than he really was.
"I'm sorry for my tardiness; I…had something I needed to take care of."
"It's alright; let me take your bag." Puck said reaching his hand out. Rachel hesitated for a second before handing him her pink book bag. Puck threw it in the bed of the truck with his own and Rachel gave him a look. Once while they were dating Puck made the same move and Rachel was sure to give him a speech about the importance keeping in tact any property that was not his own. Rachel mentally made a note of his indiscretion but walked over to the passenger's side of the vehicle. He was right behind her opening the door and offering his arm to help hoist her into the monstrous automobile. She gladly accepted his chivalrous gesture and let it erase his behavior with her backpack. She always loved to see how Noah worked. One moment he was Puck. He was the cocky jock who felt that he could manipulate anyone through fear; Puck threw slushies in Rachel's face. The next moment, he was Noah. It was when they were together that Rachel first got her glimpse at the kindness in Noah. He helped her into the car, sometimes even held a door or two open for her. They weren't together long but there were changes in his behavior that Rachel definitely enjoyed. She remembered that he had been Noah when she arrived on the bleachers and Puck when he walked away. Rachel was so lost in her own thoughts that she hadn't even realized Puck was in the car until the engine roared to life.
"Where are we going?" Rachel asked.
Puck threw the car into drive and took off onto the streets of Lima. How was he supposed to give Rachel an answer when he didn't even know himself? He just continued to focus on the road, ignoring her until he could.
"Noah?" Puck couldn't expect Rachel of all people to just stay quiet. "Where are you taking me? I agreed to go with you for heaven knows what reason and now you're just going to drive around ignoring me?"
Puck looked at her and then back at the road. His mouth opened and closed, and then repeated the same action a few more times. Rachel was getting impatient. Here she was in Noah's truck driving around aimlessly and he couldn't even look at her for more than a second or even tell her where she was going.
"Noah, could you please just take me home then. This was obviously a bad idea to d-"
"The shirt," Puck said his eyes still on the road.
"What?"
"The shirt, the one I came to pick up from you on Saturday. It-It smelled like you."
Rachel froze. What did he want? Did her want her to confess that she held that shirt close to her almost every night since she found it? Did he want her to admit that on nights when she felt completely alone, she used it to fill some of the void inside her?
"Oh?" was all she was able to get to escape her lips.
"Did you wear it?"
"No," it was the truth, "Look Noah, I'm sorry if you're upset that my scent made its way to your clothing. I'm sure a run through a washing machine will cure that. "
"I'm not upset."
"Then why are you telling me this?"
Puck didn't say another word but pulled his car to the curb in front of a park. He threw the vehicle into park and turned to look at Rachel. What was he going to do? Tell her the truth? But about what? Quinn? The baby? She would surely run straight to Finn and everything would come crashing down on him. What was worse was that Puck knew that Rachel would hate him when he found out about Quinn. Maybe he could get away with just telling her that he never wanted Quinn, that he just let her believe that he did to protect him. That was it…that's all he had to do. The whole Quinn issue could wait for another day. He was looking at her sitting across from him. He hair falling on her face and Puck used his will power (since when did he have any around girls?) not to brush it from her cheek and put it behind her ear. Her eyes were big and beautiful even though they were giving him a confused look. Her lips pressed together, held an emotion that matched up eyes and even then, Puck couldn't help but remember what it was to kiss those lips.
"Noah, really? Are you going to sit there and stare at me or are you going to tell me what the hell is going on?"
He shook himself from his thoughts, "Sorry, uh…what would you say if I told you that you were wrong that afternoon on the bleachers? What if I told you that I didn't like Quinn?"
"Why wouldn't you just tell me then?"
"Because you were dumping me. Begging isn't exactly in my arsenal of studly moves Berry."
"But what does that mean? Why would you tell me this now?"
"Because," he said moving closer to her, grabbing her hands from her lap. You got this Puckerman-he reminded himself, "I thought maybe, you might change your mind about us not working out."
Puck watched as Rachel's eyes went from confused to out right shocked. Inside, Rachel's head was spinning. Rachel had imagined this conversation for weeks, and now everything she dreamed she would say, and at this moment, she couldn't remember any of it. Puck used her silence to continue.
"I mean," he started, he had forgotten one important element "if there was no Finn, just us."
"Are we speaking in hypotheticals?"
"I don't know…yes. No. Both."
"There is no Finn,"
"But you said-"
"I wasn't lying, but I just realized that you were right. He and Quinn were never going to break up as long as she's pregnant. And it isn't not worth all the pain. He and I are better as friends."
Puck looked down noticing that his and Rachel's hands were still in her lap, fingers entwined together. Through all of this, neither of them had felt the need to pull away and Puck was grateful for that. With her hands firmly grasped in his right hand, he reached his left hand up to cup her cheek. Puck felt a new confidence when she didn't pull away. He leaned forward, slowly covering the distance that was between them. His lips hovered over hers and felt a jolt when Rachel closed the distance between them. Puck smiled against Rachel's lips as he felt her arms run up his arm and wrap around his neck. Puck's hands moved up her thighs, over her short skirt, until they settled tightly around Rachel's waist, pulling her onto his lap. Puck remembered the last time Rachel had been on his lap. It was in the locker room after some idiot decided to give him a slushie facial. He remembered the pressure as she kissed his forehead after she had tried to break things off with her again, and how much he missed her when she got up and walked out of the room. But now Puck focused on the Rachel now, the Rachel in his lap, the Rachel running her fingers through his Mohawk, the Rachel driving him crazy, but in a good way. He pulled her closer, deepening the kiss, his tongue begging for entrance into her mouth, to be able to kiss her the way he wanted to.
Rachel let him in; this was what she had wanted. She wanted Noah to come back to her, she wanted to be number one in some boy's life, and she was happy that Noah had chosen her. She remembered that Noah always responded positively when she played with the hair at the bottom of his Mohawk and now she traced it and felt his arms tighten around her waist. Rachel thought about how now all the obstacles that had plagued them before were gone. Quinn was nothing more than a defense mechanism for Puck; it didn't explain the way Puck had looked at her, but right now, with his hands tracing her spine from outside her shirt from the base of her neck to just above her bottom. Chills ran through her as if Puck's hands had been ice and her shirt had not been there. Puck's hands were like fire against her, and she also made a mental note of his resistance of her boundaries. Against Puck's wishes, Rachel pulled away, her breathing heavy, but matching his own. They sat there in the middle of the seat looking only at each other's eyes and Puck felt that like everything was beginning to fall into place. Rachel looked over at the clock in the truck. It was almost five and Rachel remembers that she promised that she would have dinner ready before they got home. She looked over at Puck once more and gave him a quick kiss.
"I need to get home,"
Puck nodded and Rachel climbed off of his lap. Puck moved over to start the truck back up grabbing hold of Rachel's hand firmly after throwing the car into drive. Rachel reached over and turned on the radio, relishing in the heat coming from Noah's hand. Rachel laughed as "I Should Tell You" from the RENT soundtrack came in through the speakers.
"What?" Puck said.
"RENT?"
"Mr. Shue assigned that Broadway project for Glee, and someone told me there was a badass Jew in it."
"I wouldn't exactly call Mark, badass; he ends up alone."
Puck brushed off his minds desire to make connections between the character in himself. Rachel sank into the seat of the truck, he hand still firmly positioned in Noah's and she couldn't help but smile. She wasn't sure exactly whatever everything that just happened meant, but she had to trust that everything was going to be alright.
"I Should Tell You" sang Mimi and Rachel couldn't help but recognize this as the movie soundtrack and made a note to make sure he saw the Broadway production she had on DVD.
They arrived at her house just as the lovers in the song had gotten together, "Trusting Desire - Starting To Learn. Walking Through Fire without a Burn. Clinging - A Shoulder, A Leap Begins Stinging and Older, Asleep On Pins… So Here We Go"
"Tell me a secret," Rachel said as Puck threw the car into park.
"What?"
"Humor me. Tell me a secret."
Was he really doing this to her? She was basically feeding him an opportunity to tell her everything. Maybe she wouldn't take it as bad as he imagined. Even Roger and Mimi in RENT were able to tell each other their deepest secret and in the end fall crazier in love than they already were.
"My favorite color is green." He said.
"Noah! I mean a real secret."
"Then you have to tell me one,"
Rachel nodded.
"Quinn's pregnant," he said.
"Noah, that's not a -"
"With my baby."
Rachel froze for the second time since she had gotten into Noah's truck. Puck looked at her and saw the sparkle that had just been in her eyes replaced with hurt and betrayal, both of which were his doing. This changed everything Rachel thought as she felt the tears well in her eyes and she promised that Puck would not see her cry. She hated herself for letting him kiss her; he hated her for kissing her.
"Rachel, say something please," Puck said reaching for her hand.
Rachel felt his hot fingers touch her skin and pulled away.
"I haven't changed my mind. We still would never work out," Rachel moved to the door before practically falling out of the truck. She managed to grab her book bag out of the bed of the truck and hurried into her house.
From the curb Puck sighed against back of the seat, then lunged himself forward, his hand slamming into the steering wheel. "Your eyes, as we said our goodbyes, can't get them out of my mind, and I find, I can't hide, from your eyes. The ones that took me by surprise, the night you came into my life, where there's moonlight, I see your eyes." sang Roger from the stereo and Puck was quick to turn it off.
Puck pulled out his phone and found Rachel's number. He didn't think she would answer if he called right now so he sent her a text. I didn't tell you that to hurt you. I'm sorry. I was just being honest with you.
When his phone went off Puck nearly dropped his phone trying to open it. I'm sorry too. Was all it said.
Puck threw his phone into the seat of the car and drove home.
"I Should Tell You" and "Your Eyes" both are from RENT!