A/N: I don't own Glee. Thanks again to everyone for the reviews and alerts and favorites! You really make my day...

*****

His mother is wondering. Yes, she's finally met his mother, after Mrs. Puckerman had threatened to activate the GPS device on his phone in order to find out where he was spending so much time. They have dinner together and Rachel goes out of her way to be really especially charming and can't help smirking a little at the surly expression on his face.

"You do know that she's about one step away from asking you to call her 'mom', right?" he asks sourly, walking her out to her car.

"You're just lucky I didn't tell her how devastated I was when you broke up with me," she replies sweetly and skips a few steps ahead of him to escape retaliation. He just laughs.

Her fathers are wondering. They don't begrudge the increased grocery bills, they accept her characterization of their relationship as friendship at face value, but they pop in a lot when the two of them are watching movies in the den and suggest that it would be more comfortable for them to study in the dining room rather than her bedroom. They create new rules about having friends over when they aren't home. It doesn't seem occur to them that she files the constant breaking of those rules under 'what they don't know won't hurt them'.

Or maybe it does occur to them, because one day she finds brochures on birth control on her desk and a box of condoms in her bathroom medicine cabinet. For about half a second she thinks about telling him, just like she tells him everything else, but whether his reaction is unholy amusement or horror, she isn't likely to be happy, so she bites her tongue.

No one at school wonders. It's become an accepted thing that two or three times a week, Puckerman eats lunch with the Gleeks, and sometimes he and Berry catch a ride together and besides, the two of them project such an aura of 'nothing to see here' that even the most ardent gossip hounds (read: Jacob) move on. What the Gleeks mostly see is her bullying him to do his homework and him making faces at her to get her to blow notes. Finn sometimes stares at her, but then he always has, so she's not concerned that he might misread the situation (she doesn't specify in her head what would constitute a misreading of the situation). Quinn sometimes stares at him, but as it doesn't seem to worry him, she doesn't let it worry her.

She doesn't wonder. Even as spring progresses and they are spending more and more time together either at her house or his. She still has lessons (vocal and modern dance) and he has pre-season baseball practice and he still goes to Quinn's doctor's appointments which are coming much more frequently now, but most days they squeeze in a little time together or at least a few texts.

They still like to have breakfast at the diner, so they find excuses to go (although 'the store was out of pop tarts' was a pretty suspect one). They talk (argue) about music a lot, because that's an easy topic for them both. He's always been a physical person, so it doesn't faze her (exactly) when he slings his arm around her shoulders or pops her feet up onto his lap when they're watching television. Once she fell asleep while watching Spinal Tap (which in her opinion was funnier the first time than the twentieth) and she woke up with her head pillowed on his leg and his fingers playing with her hair. When he noticed she was awake, he teased her for drooling on his knee.

She doesn't wonder about what's going on between the two of them because it's about more than the two of them. She feels it every time they talk (although he says nothing specifically about it), sees it every time they are together (although he always looks the same). Quinn's due date approaching fast and he...(although is pains her, she really can't say this any other way) he is fucking freaking out.

They're together when he gets the call from Quinn on a Saturday afternoon. He's at her house pretending to watch some kind of sports news program (apparently just viewing sports isn't enough, you also need to talk about them) and she's watching him while pretending to do her homework. "Shit! She's a week early!" he says, running his hand nervously through his strip of hair. She doesn't bother reminding him that only about 5% of women actually deliver on their due date. (They'd read that together in the labor and delivery chapter of What to Expect When You're Expecting, a few weeks ago.)

"Is she at the hospital or on her way?" Rachel asks.

"On her way. Schue and Ms. Pillsbury are timing the contractions and they're still six or seven minutes apart."

"Are Mark and Sarah coming?" she asks carefully.

He nods.

She checks the time. Almost 3:00. "Okay, so you have a few minutes. Let me get you one or two things." She darts into the kitchen and throws a few snacks and some bottled water into a carrier bag. "You've got a change of clothes, right?" she throws back over her shoulder.

"Yeah, in the truck." He is at the door, shifting nervously from foot to foot. She hands him the bag, but he drops it to envelop her in a hug and she squeezes tightly for a moment, trying to tell him that she knows he can do it (which she does know) and it'll be all right (she hopes this will be the case). He presses a kiss to the top of her head and says quietly, "Thanks, Rach." Then he grabs the bag and she watches him drive off.

It wouldn't make any sense for her to go, even if he wanted her there for moral support. He's going to be busy (obviously) and really all she'd be doing is waiting, just like she's doing here, only seven miles closer. Quinn only tolerates her at best and that's only because Finn isn't in the picture. And besides, Ms. Pillsbury and Mr. Schue will be there to help--that is, if he isn't busy peeling her off the floor. Emma Pillsbury may not have been the best choice for Quinn's Lamaze coach. So again, there is no earthly reason why she should be at the hospital right now, except for the fact that she badly wants to be.

*****

4:00 P.M.

"Noah! How's Quinn?"

"Good. We're all checked in. The OB is examining her now. Wait, here she comes. Can I call you back?"

"Of course."

4:32 P.M.

"She's at four centimeters."

"Excellent! Only six more to go!"

"Gotta go, Quinn needs ice chips."

5:59 P.M.

"How many?"

"Five and she's getting pretty pissy about it. She's demanding burritos."

"What does the doctor say?"

"That a little food will help keep her strength up."

"Noah."

"Yeah?"

"Get your ass down to the cafeteria and get her a burrito."

6:12 P.M.

"What do you think? Chicken, cheese or beef?"

"One of each. Obviously."

7:46 P.M.

"So what's the latest?"

"Six and a half. Still pretty slow going."

"Have you had anything to eat yet?"

"Sure. Quinn threw the beef burrito at my head, so I ate that."

"Noah!"

"Just kidding. I refused to eat it. Hospital burritos are disgusting. Actually I'm on my way to the cafeteria, now. Mark and Sarah are with her."

"How is that going?"

"It's okay...no, actually, it sucks. They don't say much, but the two of them look so fucking happy. And I get it, it's understandable because they're the ones taking her home, but you know?"

"I know."

9:29 P.M.

"We're at seven centimeters."

"Great! Remember Noah, Quinn's entering the final stage of labor so it can get a little...intense."

"Rach, she's already called me a fucking prick, like, a million times and she told Mark to stick his camcorder up his ass, how much worse could it get?"

10:01 P.M.

"Okay, you were right."

11:15 P.M.

"Nine. I swear to God that I'm keeping it in my pants for the rest of my life."

"I don't even know what to say to that."

"Hold on. Mark's here."

"Sure."

"Uhhhmm, Rach. Quinn sent him out here to find out if I'm sexting, so I'd better head back in."

12:41 A.M.

"Did I wake you?"

"No."

"She's here..."

"Is everyone all right? Are you all right?"

"Yeah...Rach...I know it's the middle of the night and I feel like an ass for even asking this..."

"Noah?"

"Can you come out here?"

"Thirty minutes. I'll be in the waiting room when you're ready."

*****

She's there in twenty-five minutes. He meets her at the door.

They stand at the nursery window for a long time. Her bassinet is close, so Rachel can see her tiny face, snub nose, rosebud lips. The little hair she has sticks up, but it's light, like Quinn's. She's beautiful. He slips his hand into hers, and it's cool and remote, almost like holding hands with a statue.

"We should go," he says finally. "I'll come back tomorrow." He's still holding her hand, but so absently, she wonders if he's simply forgotten. He looks down at her, "You must be exhausted."

She shakes her head as they head down the hall. "Too much nervous energy," she admits. She pauses at a vending machine. "I'm hungry though."

He shakes his head at the machine. "Definitely a miss. IHOP's open 24 hours. Will your dads mind if you're out a little longer?"

Really? He honestly thinks her dads have any idea where she is right now? She should go home immediately, sneak back in the window and hope for the best. Instead (and she isn't even a little bit surprised) she finds herself agreeing.

They decide to drive back separately to her house, drop off her car (quietly, she hopes) and then he'll drive them both to get food. He walks her to her car, finally surrendering her hand and as she turns her key in the ignition, she's actually relieved for the reprieve. She needs a few minutes alone to construct a defense mechanism, or rationalize, or just stuff all those feelings back really, really deep down.

She can deal with the physical attraction. She's a normal, healthy young woman and he's...well, let's just say that since she has a pulse, she's always recognized his attributes. Which doesn't exactly make her unique. Probably significantly more than 50% of the population of McKinley has had carnal thoughts about Puck. All she needs to do is take a few deep, cleansing breaths and remember to look away when he pulls off his sweatshirt and his t-shirt rides up. Right. She can handle Puck. Unfortunately, right now, it's Noah that seems to be the problem.

She thinks about Finn's recent glances and the way his hands are starting to linger on her waist when they practice. He smiles warmly at her and his eyes seem to be inviting all her old feelings to flood back. Of course eventually, inevitably, she'll smile back, allow her fingers to linger on his arm and they'll be what they would have been if there had been no Quinn, no baby.

Only she doesn't smile back right away. At first she thinks it's just that she feels uncomfortable with all the Gleeks watching avidly (except Noah who seems totally uninterested). Then she thinks it's because Finn can't help but telegraph his complacency, he's that sure of her (Noah raises an eyebrow). But why not? She spent all fall showing Finn how sure of her he could be. Shouldn't she accept what's being offered, what she's always wanted?

It has only very recently begun to occur to her (like in the last hour, or half-hour or maybe minute) that it might be because of Noah.

She's driving through the empty streets and all she knows for sure is that this is not the time or place (she will consider at a future date how likely such a time and place for them might be). Tonight is for what comfort and consolation is possible and right now being a friend isn't second best at all.

So when they sit side by side in the restaurant not eating the food in front of them and he asks her just to talk and talk and talk, she does. And when he holds her hand under the table like a lifeline, she holds tight just for him.