Once again, thanks for all the reviews. They are much appreciated. Can't wait for tonight's eppy. Fingers crossed for lots of Puck/Rachel goodness!
Ch.4
My heart melted to the ground, found something true…
Puck was going over his mental checklist as he pulled into his driveway. Yard work done: check. House cleaned: check. Grocery shopping done: check. Homework finished: check, sorta – except history. He just needed to make dinner before his mom got home and get some vocal practice done for glee and he'd be finished. Except for that stupid history homework.
Puck realized that most of the student body at McKinley thought he was a stupid, thoughtless jock who had nothing better to do with his time than play video games and drink beer. This couldn't be any farther from the truth, but he did nothing to correct their assumptions- actually he encouraged them by acting out the part whenever he could. He preferred the imaginary Puck. People wouldn't mess with that guy.
In reality, he busted his butt everyday to help his mom out as much as he could. She was a nurse at the local hospital and worked long hours for days at a time to make sure the bills were paid. She was currently finishing up her ninth day of working in a row, so Puck wanted to be sure that she didn't have anything to worry about when she got home. He had turned down the offer of a keg party at Matt's to stay home with her tonight. He didn't tell the guys that, though. They thought that he had a serious booty call to attend to. Well, what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them.
As Puck got out of his truck and started gathering up grocery bags, he saw a familiar figure walking down the street a few houses up. Rachel. What was she doing here? Puck wasn't sure if he was happy to see her or annoyed that she seemed to always be around when his carefully crafted façade was slipping. Or maybe that façade slipped because she was around. Just get the bags and go into the house. You need to keep school and home separate, he told himself as he watched her getting closer.
"Berry!" Damn it! What the fuck is wrong with me? Puck firmly ignored his brain and walked over to the sidewalk.
"Puck. Hello." Rachel had a slightly started look about her, and Puck realized that he had roused her from whatever she had been thinking about.
"What are you doing here? Don't you live over on Elm…" Puck's voice trailed off as Rachel sent him a withering look. Of course he knew where she lived; he and the football team had been egging her house for years. He kind of wondered how he had let himself become such and ass.
"Do you need help with that?" Rachel gestured at the bags he had set down.
"Uh…" He watched as she grabbed two of the bags from the ground and started walking towards his house. With no other choice presenting itself, he picked up the remaining bags and followed her. Rachel stepped aside as he unlocked the door and opened it. His four cats immediately materialized and began twining themselves around his legs with happy purrs.
He watched her raise her eyebrows. "Los of cats."
She looked like she couldn't believe that he would have something as normal as pets. Puck wasn't sure why that annoyed him so much, but it did.
"Yeah, well. It just kind of happened. They kept showing up," He replied gruffly, scooping up a very disreputable cat and carrying him and the bags to the kitchen, the other cats following joyfully at his heels.
Rachel followed him and stood watching as he put down the bags and started to feed the cats. He could feel her eyes on him, but she remained silent. He glanced up at her to see her staring at him as though she'd never seen him before. He was suddenly embarrassed and couldn't figure out why.
"You want something to drink?" Lame, but he needed to break the tension that was starting to build in his chest.
"Sure." Rachel bent down to pet the cats who were now gathered around her curiously.
Puck turned to the fridge and pulled out two bottles of water and handed her one. Then he started to unpack the grocery bags to start dinner. It seemed safer if he didn't look at her anymore.
"Do you need help?" Puck was startled to hear her voice so close behind him.
"Um, I'm just starting dinner for my mom…" his voice trailed off as she walked to the sink and began to wash her hands.
"Good. I make a fantastic salad." She held out her hand for the head of lettuce that he was holding.
Ok, this will only be weird if I let it. Puck handed the vegetables over and turned his attention to the pasta on the counter. He glanced over at Rachel and allowed himself a small smile. It was kind of nice to have her here.
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"Noah, I'm home!"
"Noah?" Rachel cocked an eyebrow at him.
"Shut up, Berry," Puck growled, but couldn't help smile at her.
Puck's mom made her way into the kitchen and gave her son a hug. "Honey, I told you that you don't need to clean the house. I'll take care of it. Oh, I didn't know you had company."
"Yeah. Uh, mom, this is Rachel. From school and glee." She was just leaving. It was what he meant to say. He swears. But what came out was, "She was just about to agree to stay for dinner."
He saw Rachel's eyes go wide as she almost chocked on the sip of water she had just taken. She stared at him for a second and he stared back, daring her to say no.
"It's very nice to meet you Mrs. Puckerman. I just need to check with my dad's first." Rachel pulled out her cell phone and excused herself from the kitchen.
"Pretty girl. Definitely classier than the usual bimbos you bring home." Mrs. Puckerman looked at her son with a raised eyebrow.
Puck just glared at his mother while she laughed.
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Puck lay on his bed staring at the ceiling. Tonight had been weird. But good. Ok, better than good. Dinner had gone really well. Rachel had asked his mom questions about her job and the hospital. His mom had told some funny stories about weird cases that had come through the ER.
After his mom had excused herself to go to bed, Rachel had helped him with the dishes. And when it looked like she might be getting ready to leave, he suggested that they should go hang out in the back yard for a while. Just so that she didn't think he was trying to get rid of her. It wasn't like he was dying for her to stay or anything.
As they walked into the living room so that Puck could grab Rachel a sweater, he realized that he might have made a mistake on this one. His school books were sitting on the coffee table.
Rachel arched a brow at him. "Noah Puckerman actually does homework? And on a weekend? Be still my heart," She walked over to the books, her eyes shooting up to him as she took a look at what the books actually were. He could practically read her thoughts. Physics? Trig? Psychology? Those were classes that juniors and seniors took. Smart juniors and seniors. Puck was only a sophomore. And he was Puck, the boy who regularly boasted about not having attended math in years.
"Did I step into a wormhole here, or are you actually an undercover genius?" Rachel's no nonsense look told him he was not bullshitting his way out of this one.
Busted, he thought. "Yeah, well definitely not a genius." He turned on his heel and headed towards the back yard.
"Oh, no you don't," Rachel was hard on his heels, "There is no way you are not going to explain this to me."
Puck flopped on the wicker bench by the back door and sighed. "Fine," he said handing her the sweater he still carried. He stayed silent as she slipped it on and sat beside him. "I'm smart, kind of. It's just easier to play dumb in that school. Except in history. I really am dumb in that subject. Happy now?"
"So all of those excuses about visiting the nurses office to get out of math and the cutting…."
"A cleverly crafted plan to keep people from discovering the truth. I go to class. Just not most of the classes they go to. If they think I'm napping in the nurse's office, they won't question why I'm not in Algebra with them." Puck couldn't help but smile a little. It had been a brilliant plan.
"That is complete genius," Rachel actually smiled at him. "Not that I completely understand why you can't just tell people. You are popular enough that it shouldn't make a difference. What about history, though?"
"History is my downfall. I hate it. It's so boring. And if I can't get my grades up in it, I can kiss any sort of academic scholarship goodbye." Puck was surprised when Rachel reached over to take his hand.
"I could help you. I'm pretty good in history." She smiled at him and scooted a little closer.
"You're just saying that so that I'll be forever in your debt, aren't you?" Puck swallowed as his heart kicked into that skippy-beat thing that it often did when Rachel was around.
"I'm saying it because you never quit surprising me, Puck. " Rachel smiled up at him. "Now, tell me what else you've been hiding from everyone all these years."
And he had. He didn't know why but once he started, he couldn't stop. She knew that his favorite ice cream was cookie dough, which he thought sounded totally girly; the names of his four cats; that he loved old Hollywood movies, and constantly watched TCM; that he started to play the guitar because he wanted to be just like his dad; how he wanted to major in engineering in college and work for NASA some day; how his father had left them; how he was so depressed after his father had left that he drank himself into a stupor and his mother had to rush him to the hospital; he told her about Santana and the cougars.
When he stopped talking he was kind of embarrassed. He had never told anyone most of these things. Rachel now knew things about him that Finn and his mom didn't even know. As if she sensed his embarrassment, Rachel started to talk. She told her dads, her family, her addiction to Super Mario Brothers, how sad and lonely and afraid she was sometimes.
Puck smiled as he remembered how they sat there holding hands in the chilly autumn air. He'd never felt so close to anyone in his life. Rachel pretty much knew everything about him. The real him, not the pretend person he was at school. The only thing he hadn't told her about was the baby. Puck sighed and rolled over. He wasn't sure how he would ever be able to explain that on to anyone, even Rachel.
Song: Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis
