Wonderwall Chapter 3, a glee fanfic

Hello everyone! So I'm really enjoying myself with this story although I'm torn with a lot of the scenes. I notice that sometimes I stay very 'hands off' like I did in the first chapter, but then there are scenes where I feel like I MUST describe everything which isn't the vibe I was trying to go for. But I hope it doesn't bother you guys. I've also noticed that sometimes I slip and call Noah Puck, which I'm trying not to do but it's hard when he is known as Puck lol. Um... this is a fairly big chapter, and I sort of switch the focus less on PQ's life (and what it was like pre Rachel) and focus more on their friendships... I'll leave it at that for now. Enjoy!

At first, Quinn freaks out after her first week of work.

She stays late because of all the cases they have (who knew Lima was in such a need for lawyers) and she's still learning the ropes while she does all this paper work.

She tells Noah that she thinks she should've stayed working at the diner. That was something she knew how to do; she knew how to function there.

He tells her to quit her bitching and remember that she used to work just as long before except this time at the end of the month, they can afford to buy stuff for themselves.

The next week, Quinn freaks out less but still stays high strung.

Noah asks Rachel to watch Caroline one night when Quinn gets off work early.

They fuck for hours and suddenly Quinn's nothing but relaxed when she comes home from work the next day.

They're in the kitchen when she finally asks her. Quinn is checking on the potatoes she's frying while Rachel sits on the counter watching. "When did you take off your cross?"

Quinn glances at her with a sad smile before turning over a clump of potatoes, the frying pan letting out a harsh sizzle as the hot bottom meets fresh skin. "The night we moved in here."

"Why?"

Quinn covers the pan and crosses her arms over her stomach as she faces Rachel. "Because the plan was that we wouldn't be any further stuck in Lima after a year. That after a year we'd have learned the ropes a little bit and that we'd finish high school while saving to get the fuck out of here." Rachel imagines this is also around the time Quinn took up cursing.

"But after a year Noah's mom told us to get out. All that praying and hoping I did landed us here. In a shitty apartment in the scary part of town with the two of us working jobs that leave us dog ass tired… All I wanted was out. I stopped praying that my family would realize how stupid they'd been and let me be their daughter again. I stopped praying that I'd be accepted into a college and that I'd get enough financial aid to go. I stopped praying for everything else. I just wanted us to get out. That's all I wanted and that's all I needed."

The only sound in the kitchen is the sizzling from the frying pan and the two girls stare at each other until Quinn breaks it, turning to the potatoes. "Instead of getting out I got stuck. So I took off the cross and threw it in the trash."

Rachel wonders one night when she's at the Puckerman/Fabray apartment (she's become a regular fixture there the past few weeks) if this is what high school was supposed to be like.

Hanging out with friends on a Saturday night, laughing and watching TV and just all around having fun.

She sort of wishes that this could've happened when they were in high school, instead of all the shit that went on between them.

After hanging out with Quinn and Noah more, she decides she doesn't want to go back to New York. Not when she has so much here.

"I'm going to stay here for a while." She tells him first.

They're sitting in her in the parking lot of his work at 6 in the morning (Quinn's home with a sick Caroline). He smiles at her (that real smile that makes his eyes change this pretty brown color) and tells her that he's glad she'll be sticking around.

When she drops him off he hugs her (this isn't something that's new to either of them anymore) and kisses her cheek (this is new) before telling her thanks.

When she tells Quinn, she has a mother's reaction mixed with her own cynical views. "Rachel why on earth would you want to stay here? You live in New York! It's a beautiful city and has so many stages just waiting for you to sing on them."

Rachel reminds her how lonely she is there and how many times she's been rejected.

"That's no reason to stop trying," Quinn retorts and Rachel smiles.

"I'm not stopping. I'm just going to get on stage here first. I'm the shit here remember?" Now it's Quinn who smiles.

"I still think you're better than this place."

"We're all better than this place."

To pull her weight around the house she starts giving piano lessons to a few kids (Caroline included, but of course, she teaches her for free) and helps out at her dad's law firm along side Quinn.

It isn't until two (blissful) months later that Rachel and Noah realize how bad of an idea all this was (Quinn taking the job and Rachel deciding to stay).

Rachel realizes it when she finds herself staring at Quinn's lips.

She should be busy typing up her half of the case notes, but instead she's staring over the top of the laptop, watching the way Quinn bites her bottom lip nervously when she gets to something she doesn't quite understand and the way she smacks her lips (rubs them together slowly, spreading out the colored gloss) when she reapplies her lip gloss after lunch. Rachel notices how prominent her Cupid's bow is and how full her lips are.

Noah doesn't realize it's a bad idea when he wakes up one morning after having a very lucid dream of Quinn and Rachel touching each other in the very bed he was laying in.

He does however realize how bad an idea this whole thing is when he wakes up one morning after having a very lucid dream about his hands running up and down Rachel's naked body while she bounces on top of him.

After that day, he starts looking at Rachel more. He watches the way she still moves timidly around their apartment (like one day they'll remember they can't stand her and toss her to the curb) and watches how big her smile gets when she sits down with Caroline at the piano in her dads' house.

He notices things he doesn't like to admit, like how her choice of clothing reflects what kind of mood she's in (he's noticed that Quinn's the same way).

If she's wearing shorts and a T-shirt then she's feeling upbeat and active (the last time she wore an outfit like this she had taken Caroline to park and zoo for the entire day), where as with Quinn, a T-shirt and shorts means she's feeling lazy. If she's wearing a dress, she'll probably be in a bad mood (she only wears dresses when her parents ask her to and it's only when they're all going to some sort of function). When Quinn wears dresses, she's in the best mood of her life because they make her feel beautiful and carefree.

He knows that if Rachel wears argyle that she's very likely to annoy the shit out of him and that if Quinn wears a tank top she'll yell at anyone for almost anything.

The skirts though? He can't figure out what they mean for either girl. This could be because he's too distracted by all the leg but he's not sure.

Anyway, there's an exception to every rule and today is one of those days.

Quinn's lounging around the apartment in shorts and a tank top, Caroline curled into her side. The two lay content on the couch watching Finding Nemo for the second time.

When he accidentally asks during her and Caroline's favorite part if she could lower it down, she smiles and tells him of course.

Had this been a normal tank top day, she would've let out a frustrated groan and bitched for five minutes about how he knew this was the best part of the movie yet he spoke anyway.

Rachel shows up on this abnormal tank top day wearing a dress, a smile on her face.

He goes back to bed before the day can get any weirder.

When he wakes up later that evening, he decides that he loves the abnormal days.

The three girls lay on the small couch, end credits of some movie scrolling across the TV screen. It's like a chain of sleep; Caroline's brown head rests on Rachel's hip while Rachel's head rests on Quinn's ribs. Quinn's head rests on her own arm, her other alternating between the two brunettes, her fingers threading through their dark locks.

Her eyes are droopy and there's a small-slated smile on her face. "I was gonna make dinner before you got up but," she says softly and he shrugs his shoulders.

Waking up to this was way better than waking up to food.

She strokes Caroline's hair one more time before slipping out of her position on the couch. She eases Rachel's head down and her smiles widens as she sees the full picture of the girls.

Caroline repositions, arms wrapping around Rachel's waist a little tighter. Quinn drops a kiss on her forehead, smoothing out her unruly curls while Noah notices Rachel's face contort in confusion. She reaches out and grabs Quinn's arm, tugging on it softly.

The blonde pulls off her hand, brings it up her mouth and kisses her knuckles softly before putting it down on the couch. She pushes Rachel's hair out of her face and then turns to face him. "Let's make dinner."

They go into the kitchen and work together side by side. He cuts up the chicken and dips it into the egg batter and then into the flour. She stands in front of their shitty electric stove, watching the chicken crisp and turn a golden brown while she stirs the mashed potatoes on the other burner.

Today feels like one of those days; those random days where nothing significant happens but thirty years down the line, you still remember it like it was yesterday.

He feels like none of them have enough of these days.

He washes his hands but doesn't dry them. Instead, he uses his wet hands to grab the hem of the tank top that hangs low on her chest. She wrinkles her nose as his wet hands dampen her shirt where it hangs over her hips but smiles anyway, powdery hands wrapping around his neck.

"Today's been a good day," he mutters in between kisses and god, it's been so long since he's felt her smile against his lips.

"Want to make it a great day?"

She turns off the stove and follows him into their bedroom.

This is not the first time they've had sex with Caroline asleep in the living room.

This was, however, the first time they've had sex with Rachel in the apartment.

It disgusts her because she doesn't find it disgusting.

Instead of being weirded out, she feels aroused (a warm wet developing between her legs) and (she likes denying this particular feeling because it makes her feel dirtier than the previously mentioned one) jealous; Not jealous because she wishes she could just have someone like that in her life, but because she wants to be in there with both of them.

She knows that the most she'll probably ever get is Noah and she's okay with that (because when he hugs her, he does it like he'll never see her again and when she starts singing he'll stop what he's doing for a moment, look at her and smile this smile that she hasn't seen him give anyone else).

She knows that if she does ever get with him again it won't be until Quinn's out of the picture because, whether they admit it or not, they were very much together.

And, as much as she'd like to be selfish, she can't do that to Quinn. Not again, not now.

Because now, even more is at risk. Quinn's whole life would be on the line, Caroline still included, but this time Rachel's friendship with the blonde is added in the wager.

Rachel likes her too much to fuck all that up for only half of what she wants.

She knows she'll never have Quinn. She may not believe in God anymore but this is one of the things that even the non-religious types condemn people for and Quinn would never do that herself again.

Still, there are times when she thinks that Quinn realizes what's going on but doesn't care.

Like when they laid in Rachel's bed while Noah was at work and her dads took Caroline to a play.

They laid side by side watching Waterloo Bridge and halfway through the movie, Quinn moved the large bowl of popcorn so that she could scoot closer to Rachel and rest her head on the brunette's shoulder like she'd done so many times with Noah.

(When the movie got to the climatic part, Quinn clutched Rachel's hand and dug her face further into her neck, hot breath dancing on tan skin.)

Or there was when she was trying to get Caroline to apologize to Quinn after the small girl called her stupid for thinking that Belle was the prettiest princess.

(Both brunettes had been outraged; clearly Ariel was the prettiest (according to Caroline) while Rachel preferred Aurora.)

"Everyone thinks their favorite princess is the prettiest, that's no reason to call someone stupid," Rachel said, looking in between the two. "You should apologize."

"You're not apologizing," Caroline retorted and Quinn couldn't help but let out a giggle (it was moments like these where it was painfully obvious the girl was Noah's).

Rachel rolled her eyes and turned to face her friend. "Quinn, I'm very sorry I wrinkled my nose when you said that you thought Belle was the prettiest princess." She leans over and leaves a quick kiss on her smooth cheek.

(Rachel never believed in her entire life that she'd say or do either of those things.)

A smile had appeared on Quinn's face and Rachel could've sworn that she saw that look in her eyes that she always got with Noah.

"Now you should apologize." Caroline did as she was told, mimicking Rachel's actions.

"I just don't understand why she's your favorite Momma."

Quinn smiled and pulled the girl into her lap, kissing the top of her head. "She's the only brunette."

Her eyes stayed locked with Rachel's.

Every other day Noah took Caroline over to Rachel's for piano lessons.

For a while, Noah just dropped her off and went back home to sleep.

But lately he's been dreaming of Rachel almost every night, so today he stays.

He sits on the edge of the couch and watches his little girl do everything just as Rachel does.

When Rachel rolls her wrists to loosen them up, Caroline does the same.

When Rachel smiles down at her, Caroline smiles back up.

When Rachel plays three notes, Caroline plays the same three notes in a lower key.

When Caroline looks over at him and smiles widely, Rachel does the same.

After one of the many piano lessons, Brandon Berry comes home from work early. He offers to take Caroline out for ice cream (Noah still finds it a little weird how the elder Berrys sort of adopted his daughter but it was about time she got some grandparents that liked her).

This leaves him and Rachel alone.

It shouldn't be awkward but somehow it is, so Rachel busies herself by cleaning up the sheet music spread out on the piano.

She asks after a few minutes of silence because it's something she's been wondering ever since her first day back in Lima. "Why'd you two stop?"

"Stop what," he asks from his spot on the couch, eyes looking at nothing but her.

"Singing, playing the guitar…" She won't look at him because she's already starting to get that feeling in the pit of her stomach (the feeling that she's over stepping these carefully drawn boundaries around the people she knows so little about now). "Why'd you guys abandon music?"

She glances at him as she tucks the sheet music into the piano bench before looking back down at the task at hand.

He lets a breath and runs a hand over his stubbly head, leaning further into the brown couch. "I think it stopped right around the time Quinn stopped believing in God."

She leans against the piano, the edge digging into her back. She looks up at him, looks him in the eyes because this needs her full attention. "When we moved into the apartment, we had to work all the fucking time and by the time Caroline started singing along to stuff we were just so fucking tired of everything. She'd want to sing when Quinn came home from work and all Quinn would want to do was put her to bed because she just got done working 12 hours. And she'd sing ridiculously loud in the morning while I was still trying to sleep. So we finally told her to stop." He shrugs his shoulders. "Same reason as everything else."

She's in a skirt. He doesn't know what to expect from her when she uncrosses her legs and stands straight up. "I feel like you use that apartment as an excuse sometimes," she says tentatively, arms crossed over her chest. "You guys may have been put into a shitty situation but you didn't have to let it break you."

He scoffs, a sour smile creeping on to his face. "Didn't you let New York break you? Isn't that why you're here?"

"I came here before it could break me completely. I didn't lose myself just because not everything was going as I planned. I still sing and play music even though I've been rejected from Broadway and off Broadway plays. You and Quinn let every little bad thing swallow you whole."

"Oh, poor little Rachel didn't get into a couple of god damn plays," he taunts, pushing himself off the couch. He walks over to her, eyes locking with hers (she's determined to not look down and cower as much as she'd liked to). "Poor little Rachel was all alone in the city she chose to go to." He's reminding her all too much of the Noah Puckerman who used the throw slushies at her. "You think that your normal life in New York can even remotely compare to what Quinn and I have gone through?"

"You act like you're the only two who have ever been in this situation," she says quietly, only now looking down as he moves even closer to her (there's a new feeling creeping into her stomach, a feeling that's telling her to reach out and touch him). "Plenty of people who find themselves in a situation like yours still do something that makes them happy. Especially when it's as simple as singing."

She can see his fists clench as she keeps her gaze down. "I… I wasn't trying to upset you," she says softly, closing her eyes as she does so. "It's just hard for me to comprehend everything that you two have gone through because I know that you're both better than that… stronger than that."

He unclenches his fists and when she looks up at him, her eyes are glazed over with tears. She smiles smally and says with a forced laugh, "Plus you know how I get when it comes to music."

He smiles too, officially feeling like shit for getting up in her face. "I'm sorry." He shakes his head because he doesn't want her to apologize (she doesn't have to, has no reason to). He pushes back a few strands of her brown hair just as her own hand raises to do it.

"You do that a lot."

She shrugs. "Nervous habit."

"You're nervous a lot then?" She shrugs again, tossing her head to the side. "Why?"

She lets out a breath before leaning back against the piano. "All of this is new for me. Actually having friends that care."

His eyes follow her hands down to where she plays with the hem of her skirt.

He thinks that maybe skirts mean she's unsettled (like she's on the outside looking in) and nervous.

This would explain why she wore skirts all the goddamn time in high school.

"We like you Rachel. You have no reason to be nervous."

"I know," she whispers but he feels like she still doesn't believe him quite yet. So he does the one thing he can think of to get it through her head (and the one thing he's wanted to do since she told him she was staying).

He steps forward and kisses her, hands resting on the black piano on either side of her.

His lips are chapped but soft against hers and she knows that this is wrong. This can ruin his family that for so long was barely hanging by a thread and ruin the first real friendships she's ever had.

But when her hands rest on his arms as he leans in closer, pushing her further into the piano and her leg lifts against the outside of his, inching her short skirt even higher, it all feels right.

She feels like she's finally found some place she belongs.

So she runs her tongue along his bottom lip and pulls him even closer, until she feels crushed between him and the piano.

His hand is lightly running over her cotton panties when they hear the front door open.

Rachel cancels Caroline's next two lessons and doesn't go over to the apartment for almost two weeks.

One night, Quinn comes home with her dad. She knocks lightly on Rachel's door before walking in. "Hey," she says quietly, shutting the door behind her.

She glances away from the TV to look at Quinn before looking away quickly. "Hey."

The blonde stands awkwardly by the door, hands clasped together and resting against her body. "How are you?"

Rachel does her best to smile. "Good." Quinn bites her bottom lip (in that way that makes Rachel go crazy) and walks over to the bed, sitting down on the edge. Rachel looks at her but now Quinn's the one who's avoiding eyes.

She almost refocuses on the movie completely when she hears Quinn's heels drop to the floor and feels her scoot on to the bed next to her. "Are you mad at us?" Rachel flips on to her back so she can see Quinn again.

She shakes her head. "I'm not mad."

Quinn grabs Rachel's hand and laces her fingers together with hers. "If Noah said anything you can tell me. I know he can be an ass sometimes and say stuff he doesn't really mean." She really wishes she could smile at this.

"Noah didn't say anything."

"Are you sure? 'Cause you haven't been around lately. Caroline's starting to think she did something wrong."

Rachel looks down at their hands and squeezes Quinn's smaller hand softly. "Can we just watch tv?" She glances at the clock behind Rachel. It's getting late and she should be getting home soon so Noah can leave for work, but she has a half an hour to spare so she looks back at the brunette and nods.

"Of course," she answers with a small smile, resting further into the bed. She pulls her hair out of the bun it'd been in all day (Rachel tries not to notice how fucking gorgeous Quinn's hair is when it falls down around her shoulders) and then pulls the shorter girl closer, wrapping her arm around her shoulders.

"You know you can tell me everything right," she says once they're settled, Rachel's head resting on the space between her shoulder and her chest. The hand that had previously been laced with Rachel's now resides in her dark brown hair, Quinn's fingertips massaging the scalp in a way that feels so good Rachel has to close her eyes.

"I know…"

She can't tell her this.

Quinn doesn't know what happened, Rachel's pretty sure she doesn't have a clue, but she knows that something did happen.

She stops leaving Rachel alone with Noah.

She waits for a long time before she leaves Rachel alone with Caroline.

She knows that she shouldn't because it breaks best friend rules, but she asks John if Rachel's acting weird at home.

"Sort of. There's a bit less pep in her step," he answers before shrugging slightly. "Brandon and I just think it's because it's finally hitting her that she's left New York."

Quinn nods and agrees even though she knows that that's not it.

She's worried that Rachel's realized that she and Noah are not the people she should be associating with; that they're the horrible people they've been for the past five years and too pathetic to hang out with.

But then Rachel smiles at her and she thinks that she's being paranoid. Maybe she is just upset about leaving New York.

The mother in her knows that this is a cop out.

Somehow she's let today slip through the cracks and Noah has to take Caroline over to Rachel's for practice.

She tells him not to stay.

He does anyway.

He stays out of the room though, instead busies himself outside, fixing the bottom step of the patio.

When the lesson is over he tells Caroline to go wait in the car and Rachel almost closes the door on his face before he can say anything. "I'm sorry okay?" She stops and looks up at him. "I shouldn't have done… any of that."

She nods and lets out a breath. "I didn't exactly stop you."

"You did the opposite," he mutters under his breath and when he looks back up her eyes have narrowed. "Can we just stop being weird around each other? I miss hanging out with you… with all three of you girls."

She smiles. "We'll see."

That Saturday, she goes over to the apartment. Quinn opens the door (looking way past tired), still in her work clothes. She smiles when she sees the girl at the door.

They eat pizza and curl up on to the couch, all four of them, Caroline dictating the movie choices. He has his arm around her, his other hand resting on Quinn's thigh while his daughter sits in his lap. She should feel uncomfortable but she doesn't, and instead mimics Quinn by leaning into Noah even further.

This time, Quinn's okay with him taking Caroline over to Rachel's.

This time, Rachel has a hard time focusing on the notes (she's too busy trying to observe Noah through her peripheral vision). She tells Caroline that she thinks they should just finish this piece next time because she isn't feeling well.

Noah sends the girl to the car again at Rachel's request. He makes sure she gets into the car before looking back at Rachel.

She motions for him to come inside just enough so that no one can see what she's about to do. "I shouldn't want to do this but I do and I think that's why I don't know how to process any of this," she rambles and he raises an eyebrow.

She wraps her hand around the back of his neck, pulling his face down and leaving three soft chaste kisses on his lips.

Then she pushes him away before he can even comprehend what's going on.

The next day she goes into the office with her dad and Quinn smiles at her from across their desks.

It makes her feel guilty again.

They're having their girl time again while Noah's at work. Caroline's already asleep and they sit side by side on the couch, Quinn's legs resting in her lap.

"I have to tell you something." Quinn looks up, the left over looks of her last laugh still on her face.

"What is it?"

She takes a deep breath. "I've kissed Noah."

She expected an 'Oh' at most (one that mirrored the one Quinn had given her when she told her about Tay-Sachs in high school) or possibly (most likely) a glare.

Instead, Quinn smiles softly (she tries not to make it look as sad as she is). "I know…"

Rachel arches an eyebrow and the blonde shrugs simply. "He's started singing again… in the shower. And he tastes different."

She looks down at Quinn's legs in her lap and inhales sharply.

(She's even more unsure of what all this means. He kisses her and then kisses her.)

"I know it's not all the time but I can tell when he does because he tastes like oranges." She shrugs simply. "I'm not upset about it."

Rachel should call bullshit.

Brandon Berry likes Disney movies. He thinks that Caroline gives him the perfect excuse to see Rapunzel in theaters without looking like a creeper (plus he knows that she'll enjoy it too). So, after one of her lessons, he takes her to the movies.

He seems to have a habit of leaving Rachel and Noah completely alone when he shouldn't.

She starts out strong. They watch TV in the living room. He tries to kiss her but she gets up before he can, jogging up the stairs to get a movie.

He follows her and before she even realizes what's going on, her shirt's on the floor and her hand is down his pants.

She turns the knob in the shower all the way to the left before she steps out of her shorts and underwear. She pulls back the shower curtain (the very bottom of the liner is covered in mildew and mold) and steps into the porcelain tub.

The water stings it's so hot and it turns her tanned skin red.

She grabs her body wash and pours an obscene amount into her hand before scrubbing her body.

She scrubs her legs first, starting at her ankle and trailing up just the way his lips did to the top of her thighs. She scrubs her arms, specifically her wrists (she tries to stop herself from remembering the feeling of his hand holding her wrists together above her head while he searched her body) before moving to her torso.

She scrubs and scratches her neck and collarbone (there's a dark bruise already forming there).

When she gets to her breasts (there's more bruising there too) she starts crying, letting out chocked sobs as she continues down her stomach. The steam and her tears force her to shut her eyes as she scrubs the inside of her thighs and finally when her hands move there she hears a knock on the door.

"Rach," he says when she doesn't answer and she closes her eyes tight when she steps back under the burning water. He twists the gold knob, a brush of cool air slipping into the large bathroom. "We didn't do anything wrong."

She laughs bitterly (she never used to sound bitter). "You're with Quinn."

"Quinn and I are not together. We've both told you that before."

She sticks her head out from behind the shower curtain, hands clutching the plastic barrier. "You can't possibly be so far into your denial that you actually believe that," Rachel spits as Puck stands there wide-eyed. "The way you two act around each other, like the way you smile when she curses and the way she hits you when you do something she doesn't like, so you kiss her to make her smile. And the way you guys are with Caroline. You two act like a mom and dad, not a mother and a father. All of these things are flashing neon signs that mean you two like each other. You are together… You're both just too afraid to admit it."

"So where does this leave you in this situation," he asks and her head disappears behind the floral shower curtain.

She hears his belt hit the floor with a thud and suddenly cold air wafts into the shower.

She turns to look at him, her body hot and cold at the same time. "It leaves me alone, again."

He cups her wet cheeks and slams his lips against hers roughly. She stumbles backwards from the force, hand stretching out on the white tile wall in search of something that'll keep her from slipping.

His arm wraps around her small waist, pulling her up and closer to him.

His tongue slips into her mouth and somehow her legs find their way around his hips.

Wasn't she just trying to scrub away this mistake?

"I swear to whatever fucking God is out there that I won't let you be alone ever again," he says, pulling away from her lips and staring into her dark eyes to punctuate just how much he means what he's saying.

She's not even sure she nods before he enters her.

So, I reread that last scene and I feel like I should make it clear that it wasn't like... rape or anything like that. By bruising I mean hickies but I HATE reffering to them as that so it tends to make everything I write seem more rough than I intend it. For anyone who's upset by this recent development, don't be discouraged, bigger things are coming in the next chapter