AN: So this is it! This is the end. I always thought this would go longer it is time to say goodbye. Thank everyone who has reviewed, alerted, favorited this story. I've really loved going on this journey with the characters and with the readers.

Thank you again to the ladies over at GleeForum who inspired this story. If you think about it, this is actually the unofficial first story in the More Than You Think You Are series They are my Pucklefam and they are awesome! I love them dearly!

Speaking of which, check out the More Than You Think You Are series. Its on going and currently features another Puckleberry fic, a Brittana fic, and shocking if you know me a PQ fic!

For those who read The Place Where I Belong I am going to start working on the new chapter in the morning!

Alright I'm done yapping! R&R and if you feel like stalking me on twitter go ahead thatgleekychick


Rachel walked over to Mrs. Puckerman the moment the doctor left the waiting area. She stood in front of Mrs. Puckerman for a few moments, the older woman unaware of her presence. Rachel could hear Mrs. Puckerman mutter something over and over again and on one instance Rachel realized that the sobbing woman was actually muttering "Thank you God."

"Mrs. Puckerman?" Rachel said making her presence known at that moment.

"Oh Rachel," the elder woman said standing from her chair before she engulfed Rachel in a hug, holding Rachel tight against her. Rachel hugged her back still unsure.

"How is he?" Rachel whispered into Mrs. Puckerman's ear.

The older woman pulled away and Rachel saw tears in her eyes as she placed her hands on each of her cheeks, "He's going to be okay."

Rachel felt like all the pressure that has been building up in her chest since she'd found out about the accident had escaped her in one fluid motion and tears began to form in her own eyes.

"I'm going to go see him," Mrs. Puckerman said, "would you like to come with me?"

"I don't know if he wants to see me right now," Rachel said honestly, "We got in a bit of an argument earlier tonight. Just tell him I'm here."

Mrs. Puckerman nodded and grabbed Sarah by the hand and guided her out of the waiting area, towards Puck. Rachel caught her breath and slid into the nearest chair as Finn came over.

"How bad is it?"

Rachel took a deep breath because for all the good news she just got she found it difficult to be calm, "Mrs. Puckerman said he's going to be fine."

Rachel could hear Finn exhale in relief and though that maybe Finn was as worried as she was about Puck.

"Why aren't you with Mrs. Puckerman? Don't you want to see him?"

"Of course I want to see him. I just don't know if he's going to want to see me."

"It's going to mean a lot to him that you're here. I remember one time when we were younger I was late to one of Puck's birthday parties. My mom couldn't find her car keys and then her shoes and she was yelling a lot. But anyway, Puck kept telling me before that I had to be there and even though he was mad at me for being late he told me that he was really just happy I showed up. But don't tell him I told you that because he then told me he'd kick my ass if anyone found out."

"Your secrets safe with me."

"Do you want to go home?"

"No. You don't have to stay though. I can find another way home." "How? You're dads are out of town."

Rachel just shrugged.

"I can stay," Finn said, "I want to stay."

Rachel just smiled up at him.

Rachel and Finn just sat in the waiting room for a while. Mrs. Puckerman didn't come out and other than the white noise of the hospital, there was no sound. It was late and honestly Rachel was tired, but if Mrs. Puckerman came out and said that Puck wanted to see her, she had to be there. She needed to be there.

But when Mrs. Puckerman comes out, she tells Rachel and Finn that Puck had fallen asleep and that after he's released from the hospital in the morning they can come visit him at home. Rachel only nods and she and Finn leave the hospital. When Finn dropped her off for the second time that night, this time its well after two in the morning. He offered to pick her up and so that they could visit Puck together but Rachel declined. She had to see him by herself, at least at first.

Rachel doesn't sleep much that night. She sends Puck's phone a text but she has no idea if he'd gotten it or if his phone is even on. Either way she doesn't get a response.

The next morning Rachel wasn't sure when Puck was getting released but she waiting for something that told that it's okay for her to come over. But there is no way because she even called his phone this time and he didn't pick up. She's almost certain that her driving past his house every half an hour is pushing her persistence to the level of Jacob Ben Israel who had done that for an entire summer after her freshman year of high school, and he couldn't even drive!

So instead Rachel waited until late afternoon. She could have gone sooner, she should have gone sooner, but instead she was sitting on her couch, staring as the television was playing soap operas that she wasn't paying attention to. But she had decided while she was sitting there that once they were over it would be time to go. And when the time came, she grabbed her bag and made her way to the car, and then to the Puckerman's, moving at an inexcusably slow pace. But when she got to Puck's house his mother let her in immediately and Rachel went up to his room. When she saw that his door was open she knocked on the door frame.

"Hi," she said sheepishly.

"Hi," Rachel smiled a bit, monosyllable words were a start.

"How are you doing?"

"Couple cuts and bruises, nothing I haven't had before."

"Good. Well not good that you have cuts and bruises just-I'm glad you're alright."

"My mom said you came to the hospital."

"I did."

"I didn't want to see you."

"I figured."

"I don't know if I want to see you now."

"Noah. I know you're mad at me. And I have a lot of say to you, but I'm not sure right now is a good time."

"I don't want to hear it Rachel, ever."

"Finn and I broke up."

"Great. Happy Hanukah."

"Don't you want to hear why?"

"No."

"Noah."

"Look Rachel. Can you just go? I'm trying to be nice and we both know that only works for so long with me." "Look Noah. You can push me away all you want but I'm still going to come back."

"Rachel. GO!"

Rachel took a deep breath and followed Puck's request. He didn't want to see her, he didn't want to talk to her, there was no use of her standing there looking like a fool.

When she got back to her house she went into her room and threw herself on her bed. She cried then, for a few different reasons. She cried out of relief that Puck was alright. Looking at his face seeing the cuts and the bruises and the reds, purples and blues that came with it made her heart lurch, but knowing that that was all it was, knowing that it could have been worse, calmed Rachel but only for a moment. When she realized how screwed up things had become, she cried harder. She cried because she knew that if she hadn't been so naïve, so ignorant to her own feelings they might not have been in this mess in the first place. If she'd been honest with her heart and not with her goals she'd have known that Puck was her choice all along, and really he fit right into her life. That life that she'd been planning for so many years, he was a piece that would fit right in. She'd just gone looking in the wrong places to find it. That afternoon Rachel cried herself to sleep.

The next morning when she woke up from her uncommonly long sleep Rachel didn't feel like doing a whole lot. There really wasn't anything to do. She just cuddled up on the couch with a blanket and a movie. She shed a tear as she was looking through movies and found The Strangers but just tossed it to the side and made a note to at least drop that off to him soon. She picked something that she knew wouldn't make her cry, Hairspray, but she ended up crying a bit when Tracy was locked in the Pingleton's bomb shelter. And when someone was knocking on her front door just before Tracy made me grand entrance during the Miss Hairspray Pageant Rachel was almost hesitant to get off the couch. She moved slowly to get to the door.

Rachel unlocked the lock and tugged the door open and immediately the heart she thought couldn't break anymore snapped once again. In front of her stood Puck the cuts on his face exposed in the sunlight and Rachel could see the bruises more clearly and even though she knew he was okay, the look of his wounds made me worry still. But what caught her attention more than the blue and purple skin was his hazel eyes those beautiful hazel eyes were red around the rims and bloodshot. He'd been crying.

Rachel immediately grabbed him by the hand and pulled him inside without a word. Rachel shut the door and neither of them said anything as they just stared at each other. There was space between them and Rachel fought hard against her urge to wrap him in her arms and just hold him. This was not something she'd ever seen; something she never thought she'd see. There was the open Puck that she'd been friends with, the Puck who told me things and was nice to her. But this Puck, this vulnerable boy in front of her was nothing she'd experienced. She wanted to cry and she could feel the tears begin to well up in her eyes but she pushed them back, hard.

Rachel took a deep breath, "Can I get you anything?" she asked her voice completely failing her.

Puck just shook his head, "Can we talk?"

Rachel nodded and led them over to her couch. She sat down in the middle and he sat down next to her, right next to her so that their legs brushed against each other often. Rachel looked at Puck whose face still held that tortured sadness that she'd seen since she'd opened the door, he hadn't relaxed at all. Though somewhere inside her told her it was the wrong thing to do, Rachel reached over and grabbed Puck's hand from where it sat on his knee. She was thankful she didn't listen to that nagging feeling when he didn't pull away. They're quiet for a long time and Rachel knows that he needs to speak first, because he came to her, and because she'd already said too much, yet not enough. It wasn't her turn to talk.

"I'm sorry," Puck said breaking the quiet.

"You didn't do anything wrong."

"I pushed you away. I keep telling myself that if I didn't push you away, none of this would've happened."

"We both made mistakes Noah."

"I didn't know what else to do, "Puck said not looking at her but instead looking at the carpet in front of him, "Losing my daughter and then you and Finn being together. I just needed to be angry because…"

Rachel gave Puck's hand a reassuring squeeze and he turned to look at her the tears once again welling in his eyes waiting to be released.

"I just wanted everything to go back to when you and I weren't friends and Finn hated me. I wanted to go back to being a jerk because it was better that way," Puck looks away and takes a sharp deep breath and Rachel knows that those tears that he was fighting so hard to keep from falling, "I just wanted everything to stop hurting."

"Oh Noah," Rachel whispered before not caring and pulling Puck towards her. She pressed his head to her chest as she cradled it and knew that when this was all over that he was going to make jokes about being so close to her chest and she couldn't wait. She felt his arms wrap around her waist and she placed a kiss against the top of his head and let him feel, she let him feel sad. She wondered as his body shook the last time he'd done this. The night he found out Quinn was pregnant? The night they gave away their daughter? Before then even? But she held him and let him release what seemed to be keeping in.

When he seemed to have calmed down he lifted himself from Rachel's hold but found and held her hand instead, the other wiping the remaining tears from his face.

"I made the wrong choice," Rachel said simply.

"Finn told me."

"Finn?"

"He came by today to check in on me. I guess he doesn't hate me anymore. This is surprising since he says you were into me."

"Well that's not exactly the way I wanted you to find out."

"If I wasn't being so stubborn you would have told me yesterday. I guess we both made some wrong choices."

"So where does this leave us?"

"In the very same place before you walked out of my house that day. After I told you that I loved you, after I kissed you."

"No it doesn't. I've made my choice, realized it was wrong and made a new choice."

"Then that leaves us with this," Puck said before leaning in and placing a soft kiss on Rachel's lips, "We're good."