AN:- Ok so this definitely took longer than I had intended and I don't really have any excuses bar pure laziness, well that and the fact that work has totally been kicking my ass lately. But anyway I'm back and hopefully this chapter will be worth the wait. If nothing else well at least I managed to make it longer than the last couple. As always I'll try not to leave it so long between updates again next time but no guarantees.

Disclaimer:- I own nothing!!

Tentatively Rachel knocked on the door waiting on a response that didn't come; she could hear the sound of a baby crying from within, that and the light shining through the crack in the blinds the only indication of life coming from the house. She knocked again, more forcefully this time, she didn't know why after all this time that Puck had finally initiated contact but she wasn't going to leave without finding out. Her knocks still went unanswered and opening her fist she slammed her palm against the door frustration building inside of her. She hadn't driven all the way over here in the middle of the night for him to just ignore her. Just as she drew her arm back to try once more the door opened and she froze at the sight before her.

Puck stood there, shirtless wearing only a pair of jeans that had seen better days riding low on his hips, holding a squalling infant against his chest and she almost did a double take at the sight. This was not the Puck she knew, the mohawked lothario with the ever present smirk had disappeared and in his place was someone Rachel barely recognised. The Mohawk had grown out and he was in need of a haircut, the smirk was gone and in its place was a look of absolute defeat and exhaustion.

He stood there staring back seemingly unable to believe that she was there on his doorstep. He made no move to let her in, seemingly frozen in place much like she was. His eyes searched hers but she had no idea what it was he was looking for. The baby in his arms let out another yell which effectively snapped them both out of their daze and her eyes for the first time properly took in the baby in his arms. She was without doubt the most beautiful thing Rachel had ever seen. Her hair was dark and the eyes staring back at her were an almost identical shade of green to the boy's holding her and were framed with dark lashes.

"Rach what are you doing here?" he asked frowning.

"That's not quite the welcome I was hoping for Noah," she said smiling slightly, hoping that maybe just maybe she would get one in return but he just stood there staring at her. "I uh... I came because you called me," she said stumbling slightly over her words as she was filled with an inexplicable nervousness. Had she somehow got it wrong? Had he hung up so suddenly because he realised he had made a mistake by calling her? She stood silently waiting for some kind of sign from him, hoping that his next move would give her some clue on how she should proceed but he gave her nothing just staring back at her much like she was doing to him.

She cleared her throat and tried again. "I came to help and I really can't do that from out here now can I?" she said regretting her words almost instantly as she saw a flash of something decidedly unpleasant cross his eyes. It looked like once again her mouth had got the better of her and she had messed things up totally.

For one interminably long moment she thought he was going to slam the door in her face, but as she watched his shoulders slumped and he stood aside wordlessly inviting her into his home. She stepped past him briefly glancing around the room she had walked into but barely taking in any of the details as she felt his eyes boring into her back. She looked back over her shoulder at him and found him once again staring at her questioningly obviously looking for some kind of answer from her; the only problem was she didn't know what the question was and by the looks of him he wasn't about to tell her. In fact looking at him now she wasn't sure he was ever going to say anything at all. The moment stretched on and she had to literally bite her tongue to stop herself from filling the awkward silence with inane chatter.

Turning around to face him fully she nodded her head to the swathed bundle in his arms that had for the moment at least stopped crying. "Aren't you going to introduce us?" she asked once again smiling in his direction but by now she no longer held out hope for a smile from him in return.

"This is my daughter Sienna," he said softly, his eyes never leaving her face as he spoke.

She moved closer to him reaching out and tentatively running a finger down Sienna's cheek, wiping away the tears that had gathered there.

"Hi Sienna, I'm Rachel," she looked up at Puck. "Can I hold her?" she asked. She saw the flash of indecision in his eyes and she knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was going to refuse her request. "Please," she said quietly holding out her arms towards the two of them. He still looked uncertain but as she watched she could see the precise moment where he obviously decided she could be trusted, still saying nothing he silently held out his little girl for Rachel to take from him.

Rachel couldn't help the smile that painted her features the moment the baby was placed in her arms. She lowered her face down towards the little girl inhaling deeply. "I love the way babies smell," she told him before ducking her head allowing her hair to fall across her face effectively hiding her from his gaze embarrassed at her admission. He was still looking at her like as if he thought he was imagining her presence in his living room.

She looked up again, catching him in the midst of a huge yawn. "Noah why don't you try to get some sleep? I can stay for a while until Sienna settles if you like; you look dead on your feet."

"Look Rach I appreciate the offer and all but I don't think it's a good idea. She's not used to being with anyone other than me and sometimes my mom. I don't want to freak her out."

"Noah I can assure you I am not going to, as you so eloquently described freak her out, please just get some sleep, I promise you Sienna will be perfectly safe with me. Don't you think you'll be much better equipped to deal with her in the morning if you've had a decent sleep?"

He still looked uncertain and Rachel reached out laying a hand on his forearm, "Go to bed," she told him, "We'll be fine."

His gaze shifted to her hand on his arm and she immediately moved to take it back, but before she could, his own hand came to rest on top of hers.

"Rachel I..." but he didn't finish whatever it was he was going to say instead he simply said, "Thanks Rach," and turned and headed up the stairs He really wasn't sure if he was doing the right thing but something inside of him told him that he could trust Rachel with his little girl and he knew he would be right upstairs if they needed him. He walked into his room and threw himself down on the bed not even bothering to undress or pull the covers over him; he was too exhausted to care.

For the first time since she had entered the house Rachel took the time to have a good look around. While there were definite signs that he had made some attempt at keeping the house clean and tidy it was also very apparent that he was struggling to keep up with everything that needed doing. From where she stood she could see into the kitchen and the pile of dirty dishes that adorned the bench near the sink, there were clothes belonging to both Sienna and Puck himself draped over the back of chairs in the living room and a few fast food containers lay abandoned on the coffee table along with some empty baby bottles. Sienna let out another wail from her place in Rachel's arms drawing her attention back and Rachel immediately forgot all about housework and focused solely on the little girl in her arms.

"Well little one, what am I going to do with you?"


Puck woke with a start, a feeling of dread forming a rock in his gut, something was wrong but he was surrounded by nothing but silence. There were no give away sounds to help explain his sudden inexplicable fear. His gaze flickered towards his window and the feeling immediately grew worse as he saw the slivers of light shining through his blinds.

Shit, sunlight, silence. Why the hell hadn't Sienna woken him by now? He sat bolt right up in bed, his feet automatically going to the floor as he lurched out of bed racing into his little girl's room. He could see as soon as he reached the door that the crib was empty but he still ran to it, grabbing the blankets and tossing them across the room as if he somehow believed that his daughter may still be there but the crib was definitely empty. His gaze went automatically to the baby monitor beside the crib but there were no tell tale green lights glowing on it. Someone had switched it off. He bolted from the room, taking the stairs two at a time and ran towards the front door; he wrenched it open and was halfway out when a soft voice stopped him.

"Noah, what are you doing?"

He spun around, his eyes searching out the owner of the voice; spotting Rachel lying on the couch with Sienna, he heaved a sigh of relief before a wave of anger welled in his gut.

"Berry, what the fu..."

She put a finger to her lips shushing him before her gaze flickered down to the sleeping infant on her chest. The little girl stirred momentarily before settling back into sleep.

No fucking way, Berry did not seriously just shush me?

But his voice when it came again was noticeably quieter.

"What the fuck Berry, you nearly fucking killed me."

She looked at him quizzically. "I'm afraid I don't understand Noah, how did I almost kill you?" she asked softly.

"Oh I don't know, maybe the fact that I didn't know where the hell my little girl was and that stupid fucking monitor was silent for like the first time ever."

She still looked confused.

"It always makes this weird noise like when you haven't tuned your radio in right," he found himself explaining, although just why he was explaining anything to her at the moment he had no idea. She was the one who needed to start explaining.

He watched as realisation dawned on her features quickly transforming to guilt as she realised just how terrified he had been.

"Noah I'm so sorry, I didn't even think."

"Yeah that much is pretty obvious," he muttered.

"I went upstairs to get her a diaper and I thought I should turn it off until I put her down and then came back down here and well I guess we just fell asleep."

Puck looked at his daughter obviously safe and felt his heart rate slowly start to subside. She looked so peaceful curled up on Rachel's chest and he didn't really want to disturb her. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Rachel's cheeks flush as his gaze remained on her and it was only then that he actually noticed just how limited her clothing was and with the way Sienna was lying the little tank top Rachel wore had crept up even more exposing the bare skin of her stomach to his eye. For a moment he actually wondered just when it was that the body snatchers had invaded him because there is no way in hell that the old Puck would have had a half naked girl on his couch and barely even noticed. Sienna made a strange little snuffling sound in her sleep and he was reminded of just how much he had indeed changed from the old Puck as his eyes automatically went to his daughter again. He made a move towards her but Rachel held up a hand.

"I know you were worried Noah but she was up for hours last night and she's only just settled down after her last feed," she glanced at her watch seemingly surprised at the time. "Oh its later than I thought, she must be almost due to be fed again."

This time it was Puck who looked confused. "How the hell do you know so much about kids?" he asked her not bothering to hide his bemused tone.

"My uh my cousin Leon had a baby last year... I mean his wife did."

"Yeah I kind of gathered that Berry," he told her, a small amount of amusement creeping into his voice.

She blushed a little before rushing back into speech, "Anyway they had a baby and I guess I kind of helped out quite a bit, you know with babysitting and stuff."

"Wow whatever happened to McKinley's walking, talking dictionary?" he asked her noticing for the first time that she wasn't the usual Rachel. Normally he would only be able to work out about one in three words when she spoke but for once she was actually talking like a normal person and he found himself wondering what the hell had happened to her since he had left McKinley.

"Anyway Noah, all I'm trying to say is that I used to look after little Darien quite a bit and I became quite proficient at all of the associated tasks such as changing diapers and giving bottles.

He couldn't help the tiny grin that crossed his features as some of the old Rachel started to slip back out, before he could comment on it though Sienna let out a sleepy cry that spurred him into action. He knew from past experience that he had only a very short window of time from that first little cry to prepare her bottle before there his little girl would be screaming for it.

He walked into the kitchen, grimacing as he remembered that he hadn't gotten around to making up a new batch of formula last night so he was going to have to start from scratch. Sienna was going to be screaming any second. He stopped startled as he noticed that all of the bottles that had been lined up on the sink waiting to be washed and sterilised before being made up again were now gone. Without allowing himself to think too much on it he walked towards the fridge and opened it to find six newly made up bottles sitting there waiting to be warmed. He doubted Rachel had any idea just how much help that simple act had been. He pushed the thought aside as something to come back to later.

He heard Sienna's cries come closer and turned to find Rachel standing behind him, cradling Sienna against her chest and he couldn't help but notice how natural she was with a baby in her arms. He couldn't help but compare the way she instinctively cuddled the little girl to her chest to the way Quinn her own mother had reacted when Sienna was placed in her arms for the first time. Quinn had looked totally uncomfortable and had passed the baby back to the nurse almost immediately, making some excuse about not wanting to upset her.

Placing the bottle in the warmer and switching it on he turned back to Rachel, holding out his arms for his daughter.

"Uh, thanks for your help Rach, but I've got it. You should probably get going, your dads will be wondering where you are."

"I can stay a little longer Noah, why don't you go have a shower; you look like you could use one?" As she spoke her eyes trailed over his body, before once again finding their way to his face, she quickly averted her eyes when she found him watching her, the slightest hint of a smirk on his lips. The old Puck would have seized an opportunity such as this for some sexually laced innuendo that would have left her blushing but Noah didn't say a word, simply holding out his arms for Sienna once again.

"We'll be fine Rach, like I said before thanks for your help but you don't need to stay."

As she looked in his eyes Rachel somehow knew that if she left as he so obviously wanted her to that he wouldn't call her again, she knew that his pride would prevent him from reaching out to her no matter how much he may need her help and she realised that everything hinged on this moment. She had missed him in the months since she had last seen him and there was no way she was about to walk away from him now especially when he so obviously needed her help.

Puck watched as she stood there silent for a moment, he could almost see the wheels turning in her head as the thoughts flashed behind her eyes. He saw the look of determination settle on her face and rushed into speech before she could refuse to leave. There was no way he wanted her to stay here feeling sorry for him so he blurted out the first thing that came into his mind, "I'm sure your boyfriend will be wondering where you are, Hudson would shit a brick if he knew you had spent the night here."

Her mouth clamped closed again as she took in his words, the confusion she felt was clearly evident on her features. "What are you talking about Noah, Finn and I ceased our relationship more than a month ago?"

He tried not to let the surprise show on his face even as a million thoughts raced through his mind. What the fuck happened there? I never thought him and Berry were right for each other but Rachel was totally in love with the guy and Finn used to follow her around like a lovesick puppy. I thought once they finally got their shit together that they'd be in it for the long haul.

She was still standing there staring at him obviously waiting for him to answer her question but he had no idea what he was supposed to say. If he told her what he really thought she would probably get all huffy and never speak to him again although just why the hell that mattered so much he wasn't completely sure since barely five minutes before he'd been doing his damnedest to get her to leave.

"Doesn't matter," he said with a shrug, "look if you're sure you don't mind hanging around a bit longer I might jump in the shower, but once I come back downstairs Berry you're gone. Ok?"

She nodded her agreement but he couldn't shake the feeling in his gut that he was not going to be able to get rid of her that easily and worse he wasn't even sure anymore that he wanted to.