Title: Puck's Thumbs

Author's Note: Sorry about the late update. Father's Day preparations was hectic. But on my downtime, I was able to squeeze in a paragraph or two, and now I'm finally done with this fic. Anyway, thanks for reading and please leave a review.

-Sux2budude

Chapter Two:

She remembers when she found out she was pregnant. She was sobbing inside her car after her encounter with Puck.
She was lost, confused, and utterly devastated, when she heard her passenger door open. She turned her head to find Noah Puckerman jumping onto the the seat beside her, looking at her with concern and something else in his eyes that she couldn't quite decipher at the moment. "What do you want, Puck?" She spat.

Puck didn't speak for a long moment, only staring at her. "I'm sorry, Quinn." He leaned forward, his hand coming up to cup the side of her face. It took everything left in Quinn's exhausted body not to lean against his soothing touch. "I never meant for this to happen." He wipes a tear away with his thumb, and it feels to Quinn like he had just wiped part of the weight of her burden away.

"That's just it, Puck." Quinn mumbles quietly as she pulls away from his hand. "No one meant for this to happen. But it did, and now I have to deal with it."

"Why can't we both deal with it?"

She's confused. Most guys would run at the thought of becoming a father at 16 years old. Hell, she thought he'd be happy to be left out of the equation.. But he's practically begging to let him do this with her. "Because I'm with Finn and he's your best friend. We can't hurt him. Not like this."
When he nods, she kind of regrets her decision. She wants Puck to be there. She wants him to help. But she can't afford to hurt other people because of her selfishness.

She remembers when Beth was born. Puck had been by her side, smiling at her like she was his whole world. He leaned down and wiped away the tears she had cried while pushing their baby girl out. "Thank you, Quinn."

"For what?"

He shrugs, pulling away and sticking his hands inside the pockets of his jeans. "For letting me be here."

She shrugs back in return, a tiny smile forming on her tired face. "You're her father... It's only right that you're here. Even if we're not keeping her."
She feels like crap when his face falls at that last part. He leans over and runs his thumb soothingly over their daughters forehead. "She looks like you."
She disagrees. Beth has her hair color and nose, but everything else was all Puck.

Quinn remembers when she was a junior in college and her boyfriend Puck was getting ready to leave for a 6 month deployment to Afghanistan. She felt like she had tried to swallow a block of cement and now it was just lodged in her throat, refusing to go down. Her eyes stung with fresh tears and it amazed her how she still had any tears left from last night when she had been secretly bawling her eyeballs out into the pillow beside Puck's.

"Hey." Puck whispered softly as he cupped her face and forced her to look up at him. With his thumbs, he wiped away the tears that were falling down her face. "It's just 6 months. And I'll try to come back in one piece." He tried jokingly, causing Quinn to let out a strangled cry.

She had lightly smacked his arm as he pulled her into a hug. "That's not funny." She sniffled, burying her face into his neck. "Please be safe and promise to call me as often as you can."

Puck nodded, pulled away and wiped another tear with his thumb. "I promise." He leaned forward and claimed her lips in a searing kiss.

Quinn remembers when Puck had surprised her by coming back from deployment, 2 months earlier than he had told her. She had been driving home from work when a cop cars' sirens went off behind her, signaling for her to pull over. Quinn sighed heavily and glanced confusedly at her speed meter as she slowly pulled to a stop on the side of the road. She was going below the speed limit, so she's not sure why she's being pulled over. She leaned towards the passenger side, pulling the glove compartment open and pulled out her vehicle registration documents, and then searched through her purse for her drivers license as she heard the cop approaching, and then stopping at her window.

"Excuse me ma'am, I'm pulling you over for stealing something of this buddy of mine."

Without even looking up from her purse, Quinn's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, first at the accusation, and then at the familiar voice. Quinn finally turned her head, and to say she was surprised, was the understatement of the century. Standing just outside her car door, was Finn Hudson in his cop uniform, and her handsome smiling boyfriend, Noah Puckerman in his dress blues. "I believe you have something of mine, Ms. Fabray." Puck had said with a smirk.

Quinn all but squealed in delight, not bothering to open her door as she jumped up on her seat and dove towards her boyfriend through her open window. She sobbed into his dress shirt, not caring that she looked a hot damned mess. "You asshole! I love you so much! Why didn't you tell me you were coming? I hate you, I missed you so much you idiot!"

Puck had laughed as he continued to hold her in his arms for a long time before pulling away and wiping her tears with his thumbs. "I love and missed you too, baby."

Finn grinned at the two as he leaned against Quinn's car. "Y'all are too fucking cute."

Quinn remembers when Puck got deployed a second time, a year after his first deployment. She had cried herself to sleep almost every night, and looked forward to his random calls like her life depended on it.

When she got a phone call in the middle of the night from Puck's unit commander, she had stopped breathing for almost a full minute as she listened intently to the explanations of her boyfriend getting injured while on some sort of defcon mission. She didn't realize she was crying until she hung up, her heart racing and her body shaking with fear for her boyfriends life.

The moment she saw him being pulled out of the plane in a hospital gurney, she broke into a run, not giving 2 shits about the airport securities protests. She slowed down as she neared him, her heart beating wildly as her eyes searched his sleeping face first, before proceeding down the rest of his body, coming to a stop on his left leg, or rather the lack of a left leg.
His unit commander had told her of his injuries, but seeing it for herself was absolutely gut wrenching. She had broken down, hurrying forward and throwing herself over Pucks chest. Tears continued to flow down her face until she felt a calloused but familiarly warm thumb swipe at the tears on her left cheek.

"Hey, baby." came Puck's hoarse whisper.

Quinn had looked up at his face, and then she was kissing him as she let her tears flow. "Oh my God, I was so scared, Puck!" She had whispered, her voice high pitched and not at all sounding like her own. "You don't know how worried I was. I thought you..." She trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence. "I can't lose you, Puck." She said instead. "I just can't."

Puck had taken her face in his hands and gently forced her to look at him. "Hey, I'm right here, Q." He paused and glance down at his missing leg. "I'm not exactly in one piece this time, but I'm still here. It's still me."

Quinn sobbed, nodding her head. "Yes, you're here and that's all I ever want."
Puck gave her a small smile as he wiped another one of her tears away with his thumb. "I'll always be here."

"Me too."

Quinn remembers when Puck was finally ready to go back to work after 11 months of healing, recovery, physical therapy, mental therapy, and getting used to using his prosthetic leg. It's been a very long and hectic 11 months, but they got through it all together. Pucks recovery, according to all the surgeons and doctors, was phenomenal. He was supposed to take up to 6 months to get used to just walking on a prosthetic leg alone, but in just 4months, Puck was able to go on short jogs around the block by their house. By the sixth month, Puck was running almost as well as he did when he had both his legs. He still had a long way to go, but Puck was more than determined to get past this and get back to doing the things he loved, working the job he loved, and taking care of the woman he loved. Quinn would sometimes cry whenever she watched Puck struggle with something, but Puck would always be patient, wiping her tears away with his thumbs. "We got this, baby." He would say, and she would smile because he's right.

She remembers when Puck had taken her out for dinner on their 3 year anniversary as boyfriend and girlfriend. Afterwards, he had driven them to the playground behind the school that they had attended many years ago when they were little. He had pulled her into the sandbox in front of the swings and smiled at her before he had gotten down on one knee in front of her and pulled a small black box from his pocket. Her eyes had immediately filled with tears, her throat went dry, her hands were shaking, and her heart... Well, her heart was doing triple flips and victory dances.
"Quinn Fabray, this is where I really saw you for the first time. You had scraped your knee, taking a ridiculous challenge from Santana of all people. I saw you cry, and that was the moment I knew that I never wanted to see you in pain. It was the first time I wanted to help someone instead of make fun of them. This is the spot where I told myself that I always wanted you to be happy." He had paused, taking a deep breath and opened the small black box, revealing a beautiful white gold ring with 3 diamonds encrusted in the crown of it. "And this is the spot where I want to ask you to let me make you happy... Will you marry me?"

Quinn was nearing hyperventilation. Puck had finally beautifully popped the question after several years of dating, and to say that she said "yes" was an understatement.
She had unashamedly leaped into Pucks arms, squealing her answer in delight, and then sobbing her tears of joy out. Puck had beamed at her as he wiped her tears away with his thumbs and kissed her under the moonlit sky.

Quinn remembers when she walked down the aisle towards her fiancé, who looked so fucking sexy and handsome in his dress blues. She's never really seen him cry out of happiness, but that day, she saw tears roll down Pucks cheeks as he watched her, further pushing out more tears from her already tear-filled eyes. Thank God for waterproof mascara, and thank Santana for remembering to bring it to her when she was getting ready.
When she got to the altar, Puck had smiled happily at her, mouthing an 'I love you' before she returned with honesty that she loves him too.

When they were finally allowed to kiss, the first thing Puck had done, like all other times before, was gently wipe her tears away, before he finally sealed their love and marriage with a passionate kiss.

"Babe?" Puck's questioning tone pulls Quinn out of her deep trance, her eyes opening up to stare into her husbands warm gaze.

"Hmm?"

"You okay? You looked far away." Puck explains his concern.

Quinn smiles up at her husband from where she laid across the couch with her head on his lap. "Just reminiscing."

"Oh," Puck sits up a little as he presses his thumbs light into his wife's tense shoulders, kneading the muscles beneath the skin there and drawing a moan of pleasure from Quinn. "About what?"

Quinn grins widely as she takes her husbands hands in his uses her thumbs to trace small patters across Puck's magical thumbs. "Your thumbs."

At this, Puck gave her a confused look and glanced subconsciously down at his thumbs. "My thumbs?"

"Yeah." Quinn nods.

"What about them?" Puck asks more curiously than confused.

She smiles, taking his hands and kissing each thumb. "I think God made your thumbs for me."

Puck laughs, shaking his head. "That was corny as fuck, babe. Even for you."

"Laugh all you want, Puck. These suckers," she pauses pulling gently on her husbands thumbs, "are magical. You have no idea how many times you've wiped my tears away with these thumbs."

"Aw, well now I feel like a douchebag."

Quinn gives her husband a confused look, "What? Why?"

"How many tears have I made you cry?" Puck asks warily. At that, Quinn's gaze softens.

"No, I meant that in the best way possible. Every time you've wiped my tears away, was a true blessing. You have no idea how thankful I am for you always being there when I needed someone to wipe my tears for me."

Puck smiles, leaning down then and pulling his wife into a kiss. "And I'll continue to use them to wipe your tears away." He mumbles softly. "Hopefully all tears of joy." He adds truthfully.

Quinn smiles happily up at her husband as she reaches up and pulls his head back down, kissing him again. "I love you."

"Well I should hope so." Puck chuckles, pressing a kiss to his wife's forehead. "And I love you too."

Quinn traces his handsome face with her thumbs, smiling at the way he leans into her touch.

"You know," Puck begins, "I'm starting to see what you mean." He nuzzles his cheek into her hand, enjoying the softness and warmth of her petite fingers. "Your thumbs feel pretty magical right now."

Quinn laughs, "I told you. Thumbs are freaking incredible!"

"Indeed they are." Puck agrees, using his thumbs keep his wife's head still so he can lean down and kiss her.

-End

Author's Note: Thinking about a sequel, featuring Quinn's mouth and Pucks thoughts on them. Yes or no to a sequel? Let me know! Thanks for reading and please review!

-Sux2budude