Author's Note: This is the episodes Hairography through Hell-O. It gives an explanation as to why Quinn and Puck started dating, since we never got one on the show. Also how she came to live with him… enjoy =)

Chapter 6: Half of My Heart

One day, Quinn is sitting in Glee Club, just thinking about her life. Puck had given her a book titled "How to Raise a Baby on Five Dollars a Day." He had said it was "In case she changed her mind and decided she wanted to keep it." Quinn really didn't know what she wanted to do anymore. Maybe she wanted to keep the baby, just not with Finn. Terri Schuester's sister Kendra had asked her to baby-sit for her kids. Maybe she could give Puck a test run? She approaches him after school. "Hey! What are you doing Friday night?" she asks. He shrugs. "The usual. I was gonna stand outside the 7-11 looking depressed until someone offers to buy me beer, but what's going on?" Quinn smiles. "You wanna maybe baby-sit with me?" she asks sweetly. He agrees.

Friday night rolls around, and after a rough beginning, the two have found their babysitting sea legs, so to speak. They have gotten the boys bathed and put them to sleep, and Kendra is in awe of them. "You were awesome tonight." Puck tells Quinn. Quinn smiles and sighs. "I'm surprised at how I kinda enjoyed it. I was worried about you at first, you seemed distracted. All the texting to Mike." "Distracted? I was the opposite babe. I was totally into it." He smiles. "All I know is we proved something tonight. This parenting thing? We can do this." And he truly believes they can. He wants to be the best dad for Quinn and their baby. 'Maybe he's right.' Quinn thinks. 'But how would I ever tell Finn?'

Quinn never ends up needing to find a way to tell Finn, as Monday at school she is approached by Santana and informed that she and Puck were "sexting" throughout their entire evening on Friday. "I happen to know Puck cares about me." Quinn had said to Santana. But now she isn't so sure. One thing is for sure, she has to know the truth before she decides whether or not to keep their little girl. Quinn walks to Puck's locker to confront him, disturbing a conversation he is having with yet another girl. It turns out Santana was telling the truth. Quinn is devastated. She actually thought Puck could commit to her. But as he says, "Look, I'm gonna be a good dad. But I'm not gonna stop being me to do it." In that moment, Quinn knows that she and Puck could never raise their baby, and that they need to give her up.

Puck feels like an ass. He wanted to be good for Quinn, and their baby, but sometimes he just slips up. It's only after he overhears Quinn asking Finn if they can "be in love again" that he realizes just how badly he's screwed up. 'I was this close to having her, and I fucked it all up.' He thinks, angrier with himself than he has ever been. If he could ever get another chance with Quinn, he would never give her up, he knows that for sure.

Half of my heart is a shotgun wedding to a bride with a paper ring. And half of my heart is the part of a man who never truly loved anything

Fuck. He screwed up. Quinn slipped today at practice and he had made a run for her. Like an idiot. "Is it the baby? Is it coming?" Finn had asked. "I think we're supposed to get hot towels." Puck said. Quinn had looked at them like they were the dumbest men she had ever had the misfortune of knowing. "Would you both shut up? There's like, sweat on the floor. I slipped. I'm fine." And then she had stormed off. She did that a lot lately. Hopefully Finn hadn't noticed that he had been overly concerned about Quinn. That would suck.

Two days later Quinn runs up to Puck, frantic. "You have to take me to get those Jewish Baby Tests." "Why, is that even a real thing?" Puck asked, oblivious. "Because if something's wrong with the baby, no one will want to take it. And I can't ask Finn, he'll know something's up." "Does this have to happen tonight? I have my fight club." Quinn had just rolled her eyes at him. Luckily, they got interrupted at that moment.

The next day was the worst of all. Quinn woke up at Finn's as she had every morning since she got kicked out of her house, and the two went to school. But something was different today. That tranny-looking thing Rachel was looking at her in a weird way, and had been for the past few days. It actually seemed like a normal day until she got to Glee Club. Finn walked in like a bat out of Hell, looking angrier than she had ever seen him. He walked right up to Puck and punched him in the face. He had him on the ground, beating the hell out of him until Mr. Schuester came in and pulled them apart. "Hey guys, what is going on?" He yelled at them. In that moment Quinn knew that Finn knew the truth.

"TELL ME THE TRUTH" he screamed at Puck. Puck looked at Mr. Schu "Punk just walked in and sucker punched me." "Don't play dumb! You're too freaking dumb to play dumb!" Quinn started trembling. "Who told you this Finn?" "Obviously it was Rachel." Piped up Kurt. "I didn't do anything." Rachel said indignantly. "Yes, it was Rachel. But I want to hear it from you. I wanna hear it from both of you!" He yells, pointing two fingers at Quinn and Puck. Mr. Schuester holds him back. "Finn, CALM DOWN!" "NO! THEYRE BOTH LYING TO ME! Is it true? Just tell me, is it true?"

Quinn bites her lip and looks at the floor. The tears won't stop flowing. She can't believe this is happening. Why didn't he just tell him the truth in the first place? God, she's so stupid. She nods slowly. "Yes. Puck is the father." "So all that stuff in the hot tub. You just made that up?" Puck leans forward. "And you were stupid enough to buy it." Quinn shoots him a look, and then turns back to Finn. "I am so sorry." "Screw this!" Finn screams and points a single finger at Quinn. "I'm done with you!" He looks around at the rest of the Glee Club. "I'm done with all of you!" He storms out, leaving the Glee Club in shock.

Quinn races out after him, but it's too late. He's already gone. She sits down on a bench and cries softly. Rachel comes to her to apologize, but Quinn can almost understand why she did it. "You just did what I didn't have the courage to do. Tell the truth." She tells her, insisting she doesn't hate her. Rachel leaves, nodding at Puck before he approaches her.

He sits next to her. Neither speaks for a moment, and then Puck breaks the silence. "Hey. So I know you're upset now. But I want to be with you, And I'm gonna do everything I can to be a good dad to our baby." He looks so earnest, so sincere, it breaks her heart. But not nearly as much as what she knows she has to do. "Thank you. But honestly, I can't handle any more stress in my life right now. I'm gonna do this on my own. I know you don't understand it. But please, try to respect it." She says, through the tears, and leaves him sitting on the bench. She has to be strong, not only for her, but for her tiny daughter growing deep in her womb.

Half of my heart's got a grip on the situation, half of my heart takes time

When she comes to him a few days later, he isn't entirely surprised. It's just after they win Sectionals, and Quinn hasn't yet changed out of her black dress. She looks radiant, the light hitting her just perfectly, the way it always seems to. Call him crazy, call him biased, but pregnancy really does suit her.

"Hey Puck." She says. "Wanna sit together on the bus? I really need to talk to you." "Yea babe, sounds good. I'll save you a seat." Emma approaches them. "Quinn? You should probably get changed; the bus will be here in a few minutes." "Of course, Ms. Pillsbury, sorry." She starts to unzip her dress, but it gets caught. "Ugh-this stupid thing is stuck. Puck, would you mind helping?" Puck runs his hand up her back, and feels a chill run down toward his spine. 'Goddamn it, why does she have to be so damn beautiful?' he thinks angrily to himself. "Uh, Puck? It's not stuck anymore. You can go now." Quinn says, snapping him abruptly out of his thoughts. "Right, yea I know. I'll just, see you at the bus."

Ten minutes later, New Directions is piling onto the bus to go back to McKinley. Quinn steps onto the bus, and looks around to find Puck. He gives her a quick wave, so she knows where to sit. Finn sees this, and shoots them both a glare, which Quinn can't help but notice. "You think he'll ever forgive us, Puck?" She asks, as she takes a seat beside him. "Who, Finn? Who cares?" "I do. I cared about him a lot, and he cared about me. He's stood beside me throughout this whole thing. At least him and his mom were nice enough to give me until the end of the week to clear my stuff out and find another place to stay." "So where you gonna stay?" Quinn bites her lip. "I figured I'd just go home, try and beg Daddy to let me move back in." "BULLSHIT you will!" Puck yells. Mike and Matt turn around to look at him. Puck lowers his voice. "After the way he treated you? No. You'll stay with me. We have a spare bedroom." "Puck, your mother would never allow that. I'm sure she already hates me. Not only am I not Jewish, but I'm a devout Christian. She'd probably rather you have a baby with that thing Rachel." "I love my mother, but I don't give a damn what she thinks about this. Besides," he says with a smirk, "I already talked to her about it and she said you can stay with us."

The bus stops and Emma stands up. "You guys, before you all run off, I want you all to know how proud I am of you. If Mr. Schuester were here, I know he would say the same. Have a great day, and congratulations again!" The kids all step off the bus and go in their separate directions, after hugging and congratulating each other again. Puck looks back, to see Quinn hugging Brittany goodbye. "Hey, you never answered me. You want to stay with me or not?" Quinn looks up at him with those perfect brown eyes, those eyes he fell in love with over ten years ago. "Yes, thank you so much Puck. I just have to go to Finn's and get my stuff, if you don't mind driving me?" "Yea, come on let's go." Finn's already left with Rachel, so Quinn texts him. "Finn. I'm going to stop by and pick up my stuff, then I'll be out of your hair for good. –Q." Within 2 minutes, she receives a reply "k."

Puck drives the roads he's driven a million times, to his former best friend's house with his best friend's former girlfriend. As he drives, neither him nor Quinn say a word. How did life get so complicated? What is it about this girl that makes him want to throw away everything that's important, including a ten year friendship with Finn? He pulls up to Finn's house and Quinn slips out of the truck without a word. She's gone all of five minutes, and quickly climbs back into the truck with two bags. "That's all the stuff you brought to Finn's?" Puck asks, surprised that a girl was capable of consolidating. "My dad didn't give me very long to pack. This was all I could grab." Puck feels like an ass for even mentioning it, so he quickly apologizes. "Sorry, I forgot. Let's go home." Again, he drives silently until they reach his house. He grabs Quinn's bags, and she follows him into the house. Puck shows Quinn her room and gives her some time to get settled.

Once she's unpacked her two little bags, Quinn looks around the room she will now occupy in Puck's house. 'How did I get here? I had everything. I was Captain of the Cheerios, Finn loved me, my parents were proud of me. I was the most popular girl in school, and now I've lost it all. All except Puck. I can tell he cares about me, even if he isn't so good at showing it most of the time. Maybe I should just give him a chance.' She smoothes her hair and runs into Puck's room. "Hey, I'm all settled in, can we talk now?" Puck pats the space on his bed next to him. "Sure, sit down. What's on your mind babe?" "I've been thinking a lot about what you said the other day. About how you wanted to be with me. Did you mean that?" Puck looks at her like she's crazy. "Of course I meant it, Quinn. You know I have feelings for you. I always-." She leans into him and plants a kiss on his lips before he can finish. He leans further into the kiss, and for a moment they're both caught up in each other. Quinn pulls away, out of breath. As she catches her breath, she says, "I think we should be together. Just to try it out, see if we could really work as a couple. I need you, Noah." He clutches her hand. "We will be right together… you'll see." "But, one more thing. About Santana-""I won't even look at Santana if it means I get to be with you." He says, and as he says it he thinks. 'Or at least I'll try…' Quinn smiles and lies back on the bed, pulling Puck with her, and the two quickly fall asleep together on the bed.

I was made to believe Id never love nobody else. Made a plan. Stayed a man who could only love himself. Lonely was the song I sang, til the day you came. Showing me another way, and all that your love can bring

Suddenly it's Monday again, winter break is over, and Quinn and Puck have been yanked out of their little bubble and are back at school. It had been an uneventful day, until the end of Glee Club rehearsal when Puck decides to stand up and announce that they're together. "Quinn, come up here for a minute." He says, grabbing her hand and pulling her up in front of the piano. "Just so everyone knows, we're officially together now." He wraps his arm around her. Brittany looks at him and waves seductively. "Hi." She mouths. "Hi." He says, with a wink. Quinn glares at him. "Seriously, Puck? You're a jerk." She sneers, and leaves the room. She goes out to the parking lot and sits in his truck. "What the fuck?" he asks when he finally gets out to the truck. "I was just being friendly." "Just take me home." Quinn says, refusing to look at him.

Half of my hearts got a right mind to tell you that half of my heart won't do

A few days later, they're at school. Things are still icy between them, and soon they're in another argument. "Look, I'm not breaking up with you or anything; I'm just asking you to stop super-sizing. I don't dig on fat chicks." Quinn looks at him with a death stare. "I'm pregnant, you idiot." "And that's my fault?" "Yes, it is. Now why don't you man up and show me I made the right decision when I chose to be with you." She storms off again.

That night at home, he comes into the kitchen while she's making herself dinner. "About earlier, I'm sorry babe. It's just…I have an image to uphold at school, you know? Just because I'm gonna be a dad doesn't mean I'm not still a stud." Quinn shoots him a look. "You aren't going to be a dad, because we are not keeping her, first of all. And second of all, you and your "image" can sleep alone tonight." She takes her food and heads up to her room. An hour later, she is lying on her bed, resting. He comes in and lies down next to her, wrapping his arms around her stomach. She tries to shrug him away, but he just pulls her tighter. "I'm an ass." He says into her back. "You can say that again." "Babe, I'm just- I've never been a boyfriend before. Not a real one anyway. I'm not used to this. I'm sorry, I'll try harder. I don't want to lose you." She rolls over. "You are an ass. But you were so sweet over winter break, we were so happy. Then the second we get back to school, you're right back to the same old Puck. How do I know you won't revert back to him every time a pretty girl looks your way?" "Well, technically you don't. That why I need you to have faith in me. Faith in the fact that I'm trying to change. To be a better man for you, and for our daughter." Quinn presses her forehead to his. "I do have faith," she whispers. "But you need to stop testing it." "I promise." He whispers back, and pulls her into a soft kiss.

Your faith is strong, but I can only fall short for so long