Miserable was a gross understatement of how Rachel was feeling when she woke the next morning. Her Puck revelation had led her to tumble into bed without making her way through her usual routine, and though she knew she was going to regret it she really couldn't seem to find the energy to care. All she wanted to do was wallow in the misery she was feeling; but her dads were both at work and the doorbell was ringing incessantly. When she finally made it down the stairs to answer the door she found Kurt on her porch.

His eyes widened, his jaw dropped, and he said the very first thing that came to his mind. "What in the name of Madonna have you been doing?"

She frowned at him. "It's Sunday morning, I've been sleeping."

Kurt pressed a hand to his heart. "Rachel Berry slept in past…" He looked at his watch with a gasp. "Noon?!" Pushing forward, he pressed a hand to her forehead. "Are you sick? How's your voice?"

"Kurt!" Rachel pushed him off before running her fingers through her hair, sighing when they caught on tangles. "Yesterday was incredibly long and trying, Kurt."

Before he could speak again they heard the faint strains of Sweet Caroline floating through the house and this time Rachel sigh was huge. "Just come in."

He closed the door behind them as he followed her into the kitchen where her phone appeared to be buried in a bowl of Hershey's Kisses. The chocolate treats were scattered across the counter, making it look suspiciously like Rachel has chucked the phone in there. With one eyebrow raised he settled back against the counter to listen to the conversation on the diva's side of the line.

"Hello Noah," she said quietly. "Wow, that's great."

Was it just Kurt, or did he really hear a crack in her voice?

"And there coming when? I'm sorry, Noah. I know how hard that's going to be."

Yup, the crack was a definite, and this time it was accompanied by a look sadly close to anguish on her pretty face.

"I'm sure Quinn's fabulous with her."

There was the crack again. My wasn't this just a font of information.

"Okay. Well I'll talk to you later. Bye." When Rachel turned she saw Kurt watching her with interest shining in his eyes. "What?"

He shook his head. "Rachel, are you feeling a bit usurped by the baby?"

"Are you crazy?!" she cried. "No, I am not jealous of an infant!"

Okay, so he had known that wasn't the case; but the look on her face had been just too fabulous to pass up. Either way something was off, but what? Quinn just wanted to be with Finn, but Rachel was over the adorably goofy boy. Everyone could tell that Puck just wanted to be with Rachel, and he didn't think that she was crazy enough to think otherwise. So what on earth was it? Stress maybe, in which case she really needed to wind down…. And then he remembered why he had come in the first place.

"Oh, I forgot!" he exclaimed with a clap of his hands. "Party at Tina's tonight to celebrate the win. We've talked to Quinn and Puck and they don't mind us going on without them, and Tina's parents are out of town."

"Kurt, it's a school night."

He sighed. "Au contraire my dear; tomorrow is a teacher prep day before finals, as is Tuesday. We're in the clear."

"Okay," Rachel conceded. "I'm sure my dads will be fine with it."

Kurt nodded, and then looked her up and down. "What are we going to do with you? You must look completely fabulous. Okay, let's see the closet."

She was on the verge of saying no, but when faced with a toe tapping Kurt with his hands on his hips and a glint in his eye she just didn't have the energy. "Okay."


Hours later Rachel was really beginning to regret saying yes. Their small victory party had turned into the McKinley equivalent of a kegger after Jacob had somehow gotten ahold of the information and posted it on his blog. The party had only been going for an hour and the house was already filled with kids and booze, and every time anyone saw Tina she had taken another drink claiming it was the only thing keeping her from rocking back and forth in the corner.

Calling the police was out of the question; then they'd all be busted and completely dead meat. The only other option was to call Mr. Schue, and as much as she hated to bring him into it, she really couldn't see any other choice. She was on her way to figure out where in heaven's name she had left her phone when she came across Finn spilled across the couch looking completely wasted.

"Finn! Are you okay?"she questioned.

Those puppy dog eyes that she had once been so in love with raised to hers and he shrugged. "The girl I'm in love with just had a baby with my best friend and I'm too big of a coward to call her so I've been bothering Puck and taking time away from his daughter like a douche."

She plopped down next to him, a frown crossing her features. "Finn," she started tentatively, hoping he would forget this conversation by morning. "Do you think they're going to get together, I mean really this time."

He nodded somberly. "I'm afraid they will. Having a kid together is kind of a huge bondy thing and if they do I'll never be able to tell her how sorry I am for how I've treated her. Wouldn't be any point."

The slightly slurred speech had left her with tears in her eyes. "Yeah, that's what I was afraid of." God, knowing she wasn't the only one thinking it just made her heart ache. She needed something to make her forget, or at least to numb the pain. Then someone went by with a tray of shots of lord only knew what, and she took one. Maybe it could take away some of the hurt.


As he left the hospital that night Puck felt a wealth of mixed emotions. He knew his daughter's adoptive parents would do an amazing job, but he was sure that giving her up the next day would be the hardest thing he would ever do.

He was emotionally spent and very much looking forward to some quality time with his hotel bed. Then his phone rang.

"Finn, I swear to God, just quit being a pussy and call Quinn!" There was a huffy 'excuse me' on the other line and Puck sighed. "Shit. Sorry Hummel, long day."

"Well I should think so," Kurt replied. "But we've got other things to worry about big man. We've got a Berry code red."

Puck shot straight up in the cab of his idling truck. "What happened, is she okay?"

He chuckled. "Down Kujo, she's not bleeding. She's blitzed."

It took a moment for that statement to sink in, but as it did he flopped back against the seat. "Rachel is drunk?" he asked slowly.

"As a skunk." He confirmed. "Look, we've all tried to get her to stop and she won't. She practically tried to rip Santana's eyes out when she tried to take her drink. Not to mention this party has gotten completely out of hand and Finn already threw up on me. It's a good thing he and I are friends, honestly."

"Thank you God, I owe you; okay, I need you to get in that truck your mother drove down to you and drive back here and get these heathens to leave; then get Rachel to put the booze down."

Puck nodded. "Let me call my mom then I'll leave. I can make it in just under an hour. Keep trying to get Berry to quit."

"Bless you Puckerman."


When Puck made it to Tina's the party was definitely going full swing. The good news was that he recognized a lot of the cars, and with any luck he'd be able to clear them out relatively easy. Sure enough, when he made his way inside he knew what looked like more than half of the people who were there, including most of the football and hockey teams and the Cheerios.

He didn't even have time to get in a word before Tina was launching herself at him. "Puck! Thank you baby Jesus. We can't get them to leave!"

He patted her somewhat awkwardly on the back and handed her over to Mercedes who had miraculously appeared from the crowd. Stepping up on Tina's coffee table, he let out a sharp whistle. "Okay, everyone out now!" There was a stunned silence as everyone seemed to consider his command; but the stony look on his face seemed to rather effectively convince them. "NOW!" Pretty soon there was nobody left but the Glee kids, and they were all staring at Puck like he had saved the world. "Okay, where are the drunks?"

"I resent that," Tina muttered.

Mercedes rolled her eyes. "Finn's asleep upstairs and Rachel…"

Puck turned to find Rachel draped over Artie's lap in his wheelchair. "It was the only way she'd move," he said, looking somewhat sheepish. "She stopped drinking a while ago, and she stopped singing It Sucks To Be Me from Avenue Q at least ten minutes ago."

Noah filed the dirty puppet song reference away for a later date with a smirk as he crouched down to Rachel's level. "Hey," he said quietly.

She beamed up at him. "Oh hello Noah."

He just couldn't seem to stop the smile. "I thought I was going to get you drunk."

Rachel giggled. "Well I never did agree to that, and tonight seemed like a good time to take the initiative."

"I can see that." He turned to the others. "Look, there's not enough room for everyone to sleep here. I'll take Rachel and whoever else wants to go to my place for the night but I have to be up early to get back to the hospital."

Santana and Brittany both had an early Cheerio practice despite the free day so they opted to go with Puck, as did Matt. While they gathered everything they had brought with them he bent to pluck Rachel from Artie's lap. "Come on lightweight, let's get you home."

"Noah, you're so strong," she told him with another giggle. "You're right about your guns."

With a laugh he couldn't hold in and a word of thanks to whoever who had talked her into wearing jeans instead of one of her customary skirts he swung her fully into his arms and headed for the car.


They made it almost all the way to the Puckerman house before he had to pull over to let Rachel puke. Thankfully Santana had wisely put her nearest the door, and Puck made it out in time to hold her hair, since the other three in the car adamantly refused to be in charge of that task. After they got her back into the car she managed to make it the rest of the way before feeling the nausea rise again. The second time she heaved into the bushes.

Noah convinced Santana and Brittany to help Rachel change into a pair of his sweats, and when his other three friends were settled and he had changed into his own sweats, he joined Rachel in the bathroom nearest his bedroom.

"Still nauseous?" he questioned.

She managed for a moment to raise her head from where it was resting against the side of the sink with a slight shake of her head. "It's a bit better," she told him, sounding much more lucid, and a whole hell of a lot more miserable. "Santana and Brittany had me drink a bottle of water and had me take some aspirin. They said it would help."

Puck nodded. "It will. Think you can make it to the bed?"

"Yeah." Despite her affirmation, she was still shaky, and it irked her to have to lean on Noah all the way to the bed. But when they lay down she couldn't help but curl in against his chest. It still hurt so badly, but she felt like she may never get to be with him like this again, so she took it. But still…"I'm so sorry, Noah," she whispered.

"What the hell for?" he asked her, sounding incredulous both at the apology and the tears he had just realized were falling from her eyes.

"For taking you away from the baby and from Quinn," Rachel told him brokenly. "All because I was an idiot."

He shook his head even as he rubbed his hand up and down her back. "I hate to break it to you, but you're pretty much the only teenager who hadn't done this before tonight. It happens."Rachel shook her head against his chest, but she didn't say anything else. Puck had spent enough time around her in the past months that he could tell that something deeper was wrong with her; but now didn't seem like the time to say anything. So with a tired sigh he just pressed a kiss to her forehead like she had done so many times. "Just sleep babe."

Note From The Author—Do other states have teacher prep days, or is mine just weird?