A/N: Am I late again? Probably, but I apologize! Anyways, thanks to my BETA cantlivewithnolaughgal!

PS: People questioned on why I have this on T if it's not sexual or inappropriate, and my answer is it's not sexual yet. Who doesn't like angry, make-up, or whatever kind of sex? That's what this story is going to have in later chapters.

On with the story!


Puck dials the number of the girl that's been on his mind all week. Ever since he started (and then quit) the program, he hasn't heard from the petite brunette. Now, he's starting to get a little irritated with her. Okay, he's starting to get a lot irritated. He's starting to think that Santana told her about him quitting the program, and he fears that Rachel's trying to cut him out of her life for all his stupid mistakes and actions.

Honestly, he doesn't see what's so wrong. Yeah, he feels really guilty about hitting her and contemplated turning himself in, but she was the one who talked him out of it. He will always hate himself for hitting Rachel. Because of what he did—even though he doesn't remember it—he will see himself as his deadbeat father. But all the other fights? He had a reason, and that is Beth. Ever since he heard about Beth, he's been in a different place. A very dark place where all he wants to do is hit and smash things against the wall. He's not perfect, and everybody knows that. Yet, they still pity him—even Rachel. And that only pisses him off even more. He doesn't want to be pitied. The only problem is he doesn't know what he wants.

After a couple of rings, he hears her beautiful voice on the other line say, "Noah, it's nice to hear from you. H-How are you?"

She's nervous.

She's nervous to talk to him, and it doesn't surprise him that he feels annoyed and a bit angry. Is she scared of a guy that she's been with for three-fifths of a decade?

"Hey Princess. Long time, no talk. I've been… better." He plays around with the strings from his hoodie. "What about you? Life treating you well?"

"Oh, same here. I've been better. Enough about me, how's your anger management classes? Have you met anybody new? Did you make any new friends?"

She doesn't know. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Puck scratched the back of his neck. "Um, yeah. The program is going okay so far. I met some new people, and I'm sort of close with this one guy." Puck can lie, but every time he lies to Rachel, he feels this guilt inside of him. He remembers the promise they made that they would be completely honest with each other, because apparently honesty is very important in a relationship. At least, it is for the majority of the people. But Rachel took that stuff seriously, and it would kill her if he lied to her or kept a secret from her for too long. Puck was honest with her most of the time—he was. But sometimes he would lie about something like buying a pet, throwing a party at his house, assuring everything will be fine when sometimes it wasn't fine, lying to her about still having contact with Finn, and also about Finn asking for her, unaware that Puck was in a serious relationship with said woman. Lying to her about staying in the program was a pretty big lie in her book. "Nothing really new around here..."

Except you not being by my side and the only communication I can have from you is through the phone.

"Oh, that's great! Who's your new friend? What's his name?"

Fuck my life. "Um, well, is name is, uh...Dante?" Puck smacked himself in the forehead, mentally beating himself up for being so stupid. I had to say his name? Seriously, I rather pick O'Jay!

"Really? What's he like? Did he tell you why he was in the program?"

Puck ran his hand down his face. "Uh, Dante is there because he takes his anger out on other people and he got arrested too many times."

"Why is he angry, though?"

Puck sighed. "The girl he loves is married to another guy."

Puck could hear Rachel gasp on the other line.

"Oh, my God. That's...that's pretty sad."

Puck closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He hopes that by the time he's "fixed", Rachel would still be his girl. He can't even imagine Rachel ditching him for some perfect, wealthy guy. That would be the cherry on top of his fucked up life. He knows Rachel still loves him after all he has done to her, but she still can't be with him because of what? Because he hurt her too bad? He knows that he hurt her, but to break up? He doesn't understand that. Oh! And what a perfect way to confront her than now.

"Why are we doing this?" he asks, his elbows propped up on his knees and leaned his body forward.

She paused before asking, "Doing what, exactly?"

"This whole break up thing, don't you think it's a bit pathetic?"

"Noah..." She pauses, and then she continues. "You hurt me in so many ways that I can't even be around you without having to worry about saying the right thing without setting you off, Noah. Do you even know half of the horrid things you've said to me?"

"Does it matter? I didn't mean most of the things I've said to you. I was caught in the heat of the moment, Rachel. I was angry, and there were some things I didn't mean to say," he pointed out.

"Yeah, and what about the things that you did mean to say? Don't you think that would hurt me? Having you admit things about me that would put me down and make me feel like...like trash! And then Santana—"

Puck clenched the seat of his couch, and breathed out hoarsely. "I was never cheating on you with Santana. For God's sake, Rachel, she's a lesbian!"

"Not that! It's the fact that you confide in her more than you confide in me! Every time we fight, you walk out and go to Santana's instead of staying home and talking to me about what's bothering you or the fight that we just had and solving the problems ourselves! And the fact that Santana still calls me all those mean, rude names and you don't say anything to defend me! Nobody says anything to defend or make me feel better about myself and assure me that I do not have Man Hands! Only Owen does, but I would expect my boyfriend to as well! You always pick her side! You even go as far as to call me the things she calls me! I've felt a lot more insecure this year than any other years we've been dating! Those first five years were the best days of my life, and all of the sudden you turn into this...this monster! You're Puck all over again! You're the guy that makes fun of me, throw slushies at me and calls me annoying!" She's breathing—panting—on the other line by now.

Puck didn't know she felt like this during their fights and the aftermath of it. The only thing that mattered to him was...leaving. Leaving everything behind and trying to get through a time of his life where he feels like he has nothing to live for. After Shelby called him telling him that Beth has no intention on seeing or meeting her father, his world went black. He didn't know how to feel after that...he definitely felt anger though. Everything after that seemed to annoy him a lot. The birds chirping, the kids playing, the ducks quacking, his mother's concerns, and Rachel's pity. All of it made him angrier and he just snaps at them empty words, words with no meaning yet words nonetheless.

He rubbed the crease of his forehead. He didn't know what to say to that, and apparently he didn't have to.

He heard her sniff softly and he immediately felt guilty. "Noah...I'm sorry about Beth. I can't imagine how horrible you're feeling right now about her not wanting to meet you. I know how much she meant to you in high school, but do you really have blame me? When was the last time you talked to your mother? She's worried about you! I'm worried about you, Noah! I'm scared for what might happen to not only you, but to us. I don't want to be, but I'm scared of you. I'm scared of further heartbreak, because right now, I'm broken. I feel ugly all of the time; I feel like I need to be quiet because I talk too much and people hate that; I feel like I should wear gloves to prevent people to see my hands—I feel disgusting! I'm not in the right state of mind right now, and I just needed to get away from further damage." She was crying now, and Puck's stomach churned at her watery voice and soft hiccups.

"Baby, you're beautiful. Don't...don't think that you're not."

"It's a little too late. Finn gave me a lot of insecurities, and you know that because you were there to tell me I was beautiful and that Finn didn't deserve me if he couldn't see how lucky he was to have me, and that picking the girl over me was the dumbest thing any man could do—you made me feel pretty! You mended my heart, Noah. And now you broke it all over again..," she said softly, her sniffles and whimpers like a broken record.

"I didn't mean to break your heart, Rachel. I really didn't."

"It doesn't make a difference that you did..," she says so softly as if she was talking to a sick, weak, person; scared to talk loud to prevent further pain, "I'm glad you're getting help, Noah. I really do. I believe that this will help you and we can fix our relationship."

She says it with so much hope. Puck curses himself in his head. "Ah, shit. Rachel..." He takes a deep breath. "Rachel, I'm quitting the program."

"W-What? Why?"

Puck shakes his head. "I don't belong there. I feel like I'm in a room filled with people who don't understand me."

"But they do understand you, Noah. Dante seems to understand you a bit—"

"I'm not really close to Dante, Rach."

"But you said―"

"I lied," Puck knew Rachel is going to either hang up, or yell at him. He scared that he might have ruined his last chance at a relationship with her and that's what makes his heart thunder like hard, pouring rain. "I didn't want to upset you further and I really don't want to lose you, Princess. You're the only thing keeping me sane because if I didn't have you right now, I'd probably ponder committing suicide."

He heard her gasp. "Noah, that's not something to joke about!"

He gave a half-hearted chuckle. "I'm not joking, Baby." He licked his lips.

She sighs. "Noah...I still think you should talk to somebody about Beth."

Noah scoffs. "I'm not going to talk to some stranger about Beth or my feelings."

"Then maybe you should talk to someone you know. Someone that knows how you're feeling; that's been through the same thing."

"Yeah, like who?"

She pauses and then she says, "...Noah, I think you should talk to Eli."

"Yeah, fuck that noise. How is that going to help? I haven't seen him in sixteen years! I think if I see him, he'll just anger me more and I'll probably go to jail for attempted murder! Rachel, what the fuck were you thinking when you suggested that I should talk to my dad, the one that left us, hurt my mother and left her to take care for three lives by herself?" he hissed through the phone.

"Remember when he called your mom? He wanted to see you and Rebecca, and you refused to see him. You want nothing to do with him, and as much as it hurts me to say this, Beth wants nothing to do with you either." Puck bites the inside of his cheek as his stomach twisted like a Twizzler. "It's for the best, Noah."

"I'm not going to talk to him, Rach. That's final. Like you said, I want nothing to do with him, so why don't we leave it at that? I've been doing okay without him, and I plan on continuing with my life without him. You can't force me to see him."

Rachel sighs. "You're right, I can't. But then how are you going to get better?"

"Just talking to you makes me feel better, Rachel." And it's the truth. Puck feels better than he did a second ago just by talking to her. Hearing her voice after a week sends this feeling of happiness and relief throughout his body. Like all the tension and thoughts that made him feel heavy—like the world that is on his shoulders vanishes into thin air.

"Noah..."

"Rachel, I want to see you again. I want you to come over...I promise I'll behave myself." Puck smirks. He meant it in both ways, and he knows she got it.

She giggles a little. "Noah...are you sure that's a good idea?"

"I want to make you dinner tomorrow. You don't work in Saturdays, right? It's perfect," he pointed out, his voice lacing with hope.

Rachel hesitated. "I-I still feel a little hesitant with all this."

"What do I have to do to get you to come over tomorrow? Seriously, I really just want to see you." Kiss you, touch you, make you scream, make love to you...

Rachel sighs. "I'll go..." Puck's grinning like a sappy fool right now, doing a secret happy dance. "But Owen has to come with me too."

Wait, what? Is she fucking kidding me?

"Are you serious?" he asks.

"I'm just not ready to be alone with you. I still need time and you still need help. I understand why you want to see me, because I want to see you too, but I still want us to be acting like friends. No relationship for now."

Puck's smile is gone and he contemplated cancelling the whole dinner thing. But he really wants to see Rachel and he won't give that up because of Owen.

"Fine, deal," he agreed.

What am I getting myself into?

~O~

Rachel enters the room, immediately greeted by all the kids from the daycare. She smiles at them and gives a greeting to all of them. She glances up and sees Owen playing around with Julie, a one-year-old who's currently without a father. Her mother takes care of her and would literally give her life to support her. Julie is a beauty and everybody loves her. Owen is really close to her and every time Julie is hurt or starts to cry, she goes to Owen and Rachel always found that adorable.

She smiles at the view before her, and walks over to him. "Hello there, Mr. Wright!"

Owen looks up at her and smiles. "Ms. Berry! Beautiful as ever, how are you today?"

Rachel places her coat on the coat hanger in the corner of the room. "I'm fine, but I really need to talk to you."

Owen frowns. "Something wrong?"

Rachel shakes her head. "Oh, no! Nothing like that. I just need to tell you something…and ask, in some ways."

Owen nods. "Julie, Ms. Berry and I need to half a conversation. Go play with Brian over there, okay sweet pea?"

Julie nods and runs to the arts and crafts section to join Brian and the other babysitter.

Owen smiles at her until he walks up to Rachel and wraps his arm around her in a hug. He lets go and sits in one of those little kids chairs, making him look like a gorilla sitting on a toilet.

"So, what's up Rach?"

"Well, I talked to Noah today." She smiles softly, and it didn't go unnoticed to Owen.

"Hey, what's with all the smiles? I thought you didn't want to talk to him, supposedly you hated him," Owen pointed out.

Rachel smiles even bigger. "Owen, Noah is really trying to fix our relationship. He's really trying to get help." Rachel sighs dreamily. "He's serious about us and he's not ready to let it all go, and neither am I. I feel like we can be together again eventually."

"So, you've forgiven the guy?"

"I'm getting there. I mean, I'm still hurt and I'm always being reminded about the things he has said about me, but I believe that in the future we can get through all of this. He just needs someone who understands him and can help him out faster." She sits down on one of the chairs next to him, only when she sits down she doesn't look so much out of place nor uncomfortable.

Owen shakes his head. "I'm not really feeling this. I still feel a little skeptical with this guy. I know how much he hurt you, Rach."

"I know, but how would you feel if your daughter that you loved so much didn't want anything to do with you? He was in a terrible place at the time, and right now he's trying to escape. He's trying to change for me and for the stake of our relationship." She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and bit her lip. "I'm just excited to have my Noah back. I…I really miss what we had and I'm ready to get my relationship back in track."

Owen smiles at her. "I still don't like the guy, but I know how you guys were before and I hope everything comes out okay between you two."

Rachel rubs her hands nervously. "Um, speaking of that, he invited me to his house tomorrow."

Owen furrowed is eyebrows. "So soon? I thought you guys were taking it easy!"

Rachel's eyes widened. "We're not going to have sex, Owen! We're just going to have dinner like friends. We are going to take it slow."

"Okay then, what's the problem?"

"I'm not really ready to be alone with him and…" She takes a breath. "I told him you could come with me!" she said so fast that Owen didn't quite get it.

Owen holds up his hands. "Wow, slow down. What did you say?"

Rachel takes a breath again. "I told him that you would accompany me to have dinner with him."

Rachel shuts her eyes close, waiting for Owen to blow up.

Five, four, three…

Owen chuckles. "You're fucking with me, right?"

It came a bit earlier than she expected…

When Rachel didn't say anything, Owen stopped laughing and glared at the tiny brunette. "Rachel, I hate it when you involve me in something without my permission! Especially in stuff like this! I don't even like the asshole!"

Rachel held up her hands to calm him down. "Hey, I know and I'm sorry but I really need you to come with me! I need as much support as I can get and right now, you're my best friend and I need you!"

Owen looks down at her, her big brown eyes pleading and the cute pout on her lips making him sigh and send a small prayer to the God's above. "Fine, I'll go."

Rachel squeals and wraps her arms around his neck. "Thank you! Oh God, thank you!"

Owen looks up at the sky again and mouths, "What have I gotten myself into?"


NEXT CHAPTER: Dinner with the three, aftermath, and the return of a former Glee club member! Any guesses?

Review!