A/N: Okay so maybe I need to look up the definition for soon in a dictionary. Regardless here's the latest chapter! Read away!

Disclaimer: Do I really have to keep doing this? Yes? Okay, I don't own Glee (yet)


"I started getting these letters, sweet and innocent at first. They would be in my dressing room after my shows, sitting on the floor having been slid under the door"

Rachel paused for a moment to look back to the time when her dreams had been within her reach. Her dreams had changed since high school, they included Noah. It all seemed so distant, so far out of reach these days.

"What did the letters say?"

"The first few were sweet, just complimentary of my talent. They said I had an amazing voice; they seemed like harmless fan mail. But after a few weeks they got…they were-" Rachel pulled in a deep breath to keep her rising panic from reaching her voice, "they became possessive"

Rachel clenched her eyes shut as a powerful shiver ran through her body. Rachel wrapped her arms around her stomach and took several deep breaths in order to get control of her fear. She needed to stay calm and get through this if she was ever going to be able to live with what had happened.

She saw the question in Dr. Robins' eyes before she even asked it, so Rachel elaborated.

"He started saying how much he loved me, and how we were meant to be together. He would still praise my talent and my voice, but since I was no longer starring in a show, instead rehearsing for my new role and so he focused on how we were one another's soul mates" Rachel explained focusing all her energy on holding herself together. You can get through this Rachel, you can!

"And how long were you getting these letters?"

"I was getting them for 6 months before he…before…that night" Keep it together Rachel; you know you need to talk about this.

"Did you tell anyone about the letters?" Dr. Robins asked with a knowing look in her eye.

"No I didn't…I couldn't tell anyone about them. I've always been a strong independent person. I was able to face the things life threw my way; I didn't want to have to depend on anyone else. Especially Noah, I loved him so much and I never wanted him to worry about me the way I worried, the way I worry about him." Rachel explained fighting back the tears that were threatening to spill out.

"You didn't know who was writing the letters, didn't suspect anyone?" Dr. Robins prodded.

Rachel shook her head as the panic she had been fighting for the last half an hour took over and she broke down as images of Alec standing over her with the knife in his hands flooded her. Seeing her obvious panic Dr. Robins backed off, "I think that's enough for today Rachel, we'll continue next time. But this panic, don't fight it all the time, it's your way of dealing with what happened"

Rachel just nodded and stood to leave.


"Well look who finally decided to call"

"Q I'm really not in the mood for this" Puck answered, dragging his hand over his head and leaning back in his seat.

"Well that's too bad Puck, because we ARE going to have this conversation. A year and a half has gone by since the last time we heard from you and let me tell you I do not find this acceptable in the least. We tried calling and writing you for 6 months Puck, 6 months in which you ignored us outright! What did you do drop off the face of the planet? Disappear to Siberia where no one could find you? Live in a bar on a constant bender?"

Puck listened to Quinn's ranting with a burning in his stomach. He clearly had a lot more than the current state of his relationship with Rachel to feel guilty about.

"I'm sorry Q, I really am, but I was dealing with some stuff"

He could practically see Quinn vibrating with anger on the other end of the line.

"No shit Puckerman! We were there for you guys after Rachel's attack, and then nothing. When she split, went running back to Lima, it's as if you just disappeared!"

Puck really should have realized that Quinn would know about Rachel leaving New York for Lima, she always knows. He heard her sigh and take a breath before she continued in a calmer voice than before.

"Look Puck, I'm pissed because we were worried. We had no idea how you were doing, how Rachel was doing and it's been killing us. So how are you?"

"That's kind of why I'm calling. Is Artie around? He should hear this too"

"He's with the kids, let me get him"

A minute later he heard someone else pick up on the other end of the line before he heard Artie's voice, "Start talking Puckerman, and this better be good"

So that's what he did. He told his best friends how he had fallen apart after he had come home to find Rachel gone. He'd drank himself into a stupor for 3 whole weeks before his boss pulled him out of the bar and told him to stop trying to kill himself. And then he told them all about the current situation he was faced with; Rachel, Becky, the creepy fucked up stalker dude. The whole mess. Surprisingly at the end he felt lighter, better having finally told someone the whole story.

There was a long moment of silence before he heard Artie blow out a long, slow whistle, "That's messed up dude"

Nodding his head Puck agreed "Very"

That's when he noticed the time, 5 o'clock and realized he wasn't sure Rachel would be so happy with him for reaching out to Artie and Quinn. "He guys I have to go, Rachel's going to be out any minute. But hey I'll call again on the weekend, I'm sure there's a whole lot more we have to talk about"

"You better Puck!" Quinn told him.

He laughed then, realizing how stupid he'd been to cut these people out of his life when they'd been through so much together already. "I will".


By the time his watch hit 5:15pm Puck was starting to get worried, Rachel should have been out 15 minutes earlier.

He knew she was safe inside the therapist's office, at least from the outside world, but he'd seen the panic attacks in the time he'd been here. Puck saw the debilitating fear that could swallow her whole. Making his decision he opened the door and stepped out of the car, kicking the door shut behind him before striding towards the entrance to the medical building. Dr. Robins' offices were on the first floor just to the left of the entrance.

Walking in Puck saw Rachel sitting in the waiting area, pale as a ghost and staring straight ahead with her trembling hands clasped tightly on her lap. In that moment Puck's heart broke for her, he knew how difficult it must be to relive everything she's been so adamant about hiding from.

Leaning down in front of her, Puck placed his hands gently over hers and watched as her gaze slowly began to focus on him, Rachel no doubt dragging herself out of memories from the past.

"Let's get you home Rach"

By 9pm that night Rachel had already headed off to bed and Puck was getting really worried that the therapy may be doing more harm than good. Rachel had said next to nothing since he'd picked her up 4 hours ago.

Puck had made them both dinner and Rachel had struggled to make small talk as they ate their pasta that night. Not able to stand the silence Puck had spent a fair amount of time rambling on about the new security cameras at McKinley and their installation. He was used to not being able to get a word in edge-wise around Rachel so the silence that night had more than unsettled him.

He was really and truly worried about her, and he wondered if she would ever be able to get over what happened to her. He understood that the attack would always be a part of her, she couldn't erase it from her past, but would she ever be able to live with it?

Get it together Puckerman. Rachel may not be able to remember how strong she was, but he definitely did. Puck knew that eventually Rachel would push past this funk and come out the other side stronger for it. Her perseverance was one of the things he'd always loved the most about her; Rachel always knew how to take anything the world threw at her. He had to believe that she could move past this, he had to believe that for her, because he didn't think she believed that about herself anymore.


Rachel felt the cold wet sting of the blade slicing through her side again as fear coursed through her. You're dreaming Rachel, wake up! "You were supposed to love me. That's okay, we'll be together now"

Rachel was aware she was having a nightmare, progress at least. As she was struggling to pull herself towards reality, to wake herself up, she felt a cool hand on her forehead that brought her straight up in bed.

Embarrassment immediately flooded her when she realized that she had again awoken Noah with her nightmares. She felt raw and exposed sitting there in the almost dark looking into his eyes. It almost seemed as though he was trying to take the pain away from her, and maybe he was, but she understood now that she had to face this on her own.

Puck watched as Rachel consciously regulated her breathing to calm herself down. He wished he could take away her fear so she wouldn't be haunted by the past. He saw the vulnerability flash in her eyes before her gaze turned hard as she gathered her strength, Puck was proud of her for being so strong, and also a little hopeful that she was realizing how strong she still was.

When Rachel shifted back against her pillows, the reflection of moonlight caught his eye and Puck's eyes traveled down the chain she had been wearing for the past few days to the end where the small white gold band of her wedding ring sat. In that moment it took every ounce of self-control he possessed not to haul her towards him and take her mouth with his. He couldn't push Rachel, not right now, not yet.

Instead he pushed himself off the bed and started towards the door. Turning back he saw the confused look that flashed across her face before she could hide it.

"You're okay now Rach?"

"I'm fine" she answered as he hurried out her bedroom door. Leaning her head back against the wall she wondered what had caused the sudden change in Noah's behavior. It was as her fingers subconsciously started playing with her wedding ring on the end of the chain around her neck that she realized what was wrong. He'd seen the ring, and he'd run.

Pulling the covers back up to her chin, Rachel tries her best to ignore the burning pain in her chest and the hot tears streaking down her cheeks.


Thursday was a rather uneventful day for Puck and Rachel. By the morning Rachel is talking again, rambling on about the songs she's preparing for Glee club that afternoon. It quickly becomes apparent to Puck that Rachel for all intents and purposes plans on completely ignoring their interaction in her bedroom at 1 o'clock that morning. Maybe that's for the best though considering he didn't really get much sleep after stumbling back into the guest room.

After school had ended for the day at McKinley he and Reid headed over to the school to go over the video footage from the day in order to see if there was any suspicious activity around Becky's locker. After a couple of hours of staring at the computer screens they had noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

"Well fuck, I was kind of hoping we'd catch the idiot and we'd be done with this" Reid says, shaking his head and dragging his hand over his face.

Puck's eyes feel like they've been sand blasted after staring at the monitors for so long but despite knowing it was probably a long shot, he too had gotten his hopes up about catching the guy. The lists of names he had collected from Becky had led nowhere; none of the guys had any sort of record.

As Puck went to bed that night he realized that they needed to step up their game if they were going to catch this guy.


Unlike Thursday, Friday was a VERY eventful day for Rachel and Puck.

Puck was killing time painting Rachel's living room when just after lunch time his cell phone rang. Dropping the roller back into the paint tray, he unclipped his cell phone from his belt to see that it was Rachel calling. Obviously something new had happened with Becky. It was pretty much the only thing they'd talked about over the past 2 days; Rachel had become very introverted.

"Hey Rach, what happened" he asked, cutting right to the chase.

"Becky found a note in her bag this time. In her first class after lunch she opened her backpack and it was sitting there on top"

"I'll be there in 20 minutes"

Puck once again met with Becky in Rachel's office. They talked through where she had been at lunch, who had been around her, and where her bag had been. However they really didn't have much new information to go on, only that whoever this guy was he had noticed the new security cameras and adjusted his plans accordingly. Great, we're dealing with a smart bastard, Puck thought after Becky had left the office. He was right last night, they needed to figure out a way to find this guy and fast; he was becoming a real pain in his ass.

That night at dinner Puck was contemplating the best way to draw out the guy bothering Becky without putting her in danger, or at least he was trying to but with Rachel off in her own world decidedly not talking to him it was a little difficult, he didn't understand why she suddenly had so little to say to him, it was like all the progress they'd made up until Wednesday had just disappeared.

Just as Puck was about to confront Rachel and ask her what was wrong he heard footsteps coming up the front steps of the house, followed very quickly by the doorbell ringing.

Standing behind Rachel as she opened the front door his eyes went wide when he saw who was standing on the front porch.

"Well, aren't you going to invite us in?" Quinn said looking back at her husband Artie who was on the front walk just beyond the few steps to the porch.

Rachel stood frozen for a long while, unable to understand why Quinn and Artie were showing up out of the blue. She had spent the past year and a half pushing everyone away, and suddenly they were all showing up on her front step.

"I am so sick and tired of people thinking they can just waltz back into my life and show up on my front porch!" Rachel yelled stepping forwards towards Quinn, where she promptly hugged her and burst into tears.


A/N 2: Remember 100th reviewer gets a oneshot! So don't forget to review.