A/N Heyyyy :D So the reviews on my last chapter were astounding, and they energized me so much that I sat down, started writing, and didn't stop! Lol, I hope you guys realize that when you leave longer, more detailed reviews, it gives me ideas people! And you know what comes from ideas?

5500 WORD CHAPTERS PEOPLE!

lol, so I hope you appreciate this lovely, fucking long chapter. Hereeeee it is :)...

There. Standing in the threshold of Rachel Berry's suburban household, was Jesse St James.

Rachel felt her heart thud dangerously in her chest, and could practically feel the tension oozing from this delicate situation. She took several deep breaths and realized that no one had said anything yet. Well if there was anything Rachel Berry was good for, it was talking.

"Jesse!"

Her voice was unnaturally bright and chipper, and she figured her smile was as alltogether unconvincing as her syruppy sweep voice at the moment.

"What are you doing here Jesse? I didn't expect to see you today."

She kept the whole peppy chipmunk thing going, hoping to de-thaw this extremely volatile situation before it blew up in all of their faces. Jesse gave Puck a glare that could flatten a weaker man...the main word being weaker, which Noah Puckerman, certainly was not.

Being the ever so not weak man he was, he simply returned the look, causing the tension in the room to build. Not that Jesse was actually in the room, a fact that Rachel soon took note of.

"Jesse, I'm so sorry! I've been so rude leaving you standing there on the porch in this weather."

Her voice was reaching a dangerously high pitch, and Noah glacned down, giving her a funny look.

"It's april babe."

His tone was still terse, and Jesse reacted physically to Puck's casual term of endearment, opening his mouth to say something, but getting cut off by Rachel before he could start a fight, a fight he would most likely lose.

"Well either way...won't you please come in Jesse?"

He gave her a stiff nod and entered, causing both Puck and Rachel to take a step back. Then, they all smelled it, the cupcakes...the burnt cupcakes.

"Oh Shit!"

For once...it wasn't Puck using one of his more familiar curse words...it was Rachel.

Both Jesse and Puck turned towards her with mouths wide open, neither of them having heard such a deliciously dirty word out of her mouth...well, not Jesse at least. Puck figured he had been a bad example on her...but the mere idea that she was picking up words from his vocabulary made him proud. It wasn't like she didn't effect him as well. In fact, just the other day, Puck had caught himself using a word with four silabals, that was definitely Rachel rubbing off on him.

But before either of them could comment, Rachel was flying towards the kitchen with all the abandon of a mother who thought her child was about to get hit by a car by standing in the middle of the road.

The two unlikely house guests were left standing awkardly by the front door,which was still open, and neither of them were ready or willing to say the first word. So they simply stood, eyeing the each other up, waiting for Rachel's return.

Then, they heard it.

It was a loud clattering noise, followed by another rather colorful word, from the mouth of one Rachel Berry. Both of them ran towards the kitchen, Puck being in the lead of course, and the sight that greeted them confused Jesse, and gave Puck a mixted reaction of pity, concern, and ammusement. The last showing prominently on his face.

Rachel looked up at them with fresh tears brimming on the tips of her eyes, while holding her right thumb with her other hand like a child who had just been pricked with a thorn. Puck observed that her thumb was beginning to show a red welt, and figured he could safely assume she had burnt herself.

Asserting himself into the situation before that Jesse Fucker had a chance too, Puck knelt over and gently took her hand. He heard her suck in a sharp breath, and realized that her burn ran down the length of her entire right thumb, nearly reaching her wrist. She sniffled pittifully, and bit her lip before saying,

"We- We keep a first aid kit in the closet across from the pantry...It has b-burn medicine it it."

Before she had even finished speaking, he was off to find the closet. Shoving roughly past Jesse on his way, who was still standing dumbly in the door way of the kitchen, with a look on his face that was a mix of angry and stupid...yeah, Puck had decided that stupid was an emotion, and Jesse St. James was full of it.

It didn't take Puck 30 seconds to find the medicine to which Rachel was refering, and the sight that met him when he walked back in the kitchen caused his gut to clench. Jesse was knelt in a manner which was similiar to how Puck had been positioned before, only he was focusing of Rachel's face. It took a couple of red hazed seconds to realized that Jesse was simply inspecting a small red mark to the side of Rachel's right eye that had to be a burn.

When Rachel noticed Puck, she shifted away from Jesse, reaching her left hand up for the box in Puck's hand. He just shook his head with a gentle smile. Then, trying his best to ignore this unwanted intruder and focus on his little girl and her injury, he knelt over on Rachel's other side and took her right wrist gingerly, trying to inflict as little pain as possible. He let out a breath.

"Damn babe. What happened?"

His voice was slightly off, probably because he was trying to hide his worry for her underneath his...how did she term it? Oh yeah! His 'alpha male exterior."

She sniffled again, only this time it was more theatrical, as if she was trying to make a point.

"I ruined, another batch of cupcakes."

She nodded her head over towards the pan of cupcakes, which now resided, although burnt and strewn all about, on the Berry's perfect white linoleam floor. Puck let out a small snort, and Rachel glared up at him.

"This is most definitely not funny Noah! I'm serious about this fundraiser."

He tried to hide his grin. Then said without thinking.

"So am I. And now I'm gonna have to find some more pot because you ruined this batch."

He caught himself a moment too late, and both Rachel and Jesse were looking at him with looks of utter astonishment. He expected to get chewed into from Rachel, but that wasn't what happened, instead...

"What the fuck man! Why are you trying to drug my girl up!"

Puck growled and leveled Jesse with a glare that had worked wondered with impertinent members of the football team.

"They weren't for Rachel. These were for the glee club fundraiser you little shit."

Puck's voice was tense with barely restrained violence that was straining against the very rarely used strands of self restraint left in Puck after the day he'd had, and his mind was beginning to form a chant or sorts.

Cannot kill Jesse in Rachel's kitchten. Cannot kill Jesse in Rachel's kitchen. Cannot kill Jesse in Rachel's kitchen.

It wasn't working very well.

He turned his attention back towards the injured little jew curled up into a ball on the kitchen floor, scared of her response to the secret he had just let slip. To Puck and Jesse's complete and utter shock, Rachel's voice came out quiet and gentle.

"You spiked the fundraiser cupcakes?"

Puck nodded guiltily.

"Because you wanted them to sell well and have lots of people buy them?"

Another nod...where was this going...was she setting him up for another famous Berry rant, because this wasn't her usual style. When he met her eyes, which Puck had been avoiding for fear of getting burnt, they caused his heart to stop...then start again.

She was staring at him with a look of childish adoration that she usually reserved for the Wicked soundtrack and Barbara Streisand.

"Noah that's- that's the most thoughtfull thing anyone's ever done fore me."

Her voice was gentle and soft, causing Puck's stomach to feel strange and jittery like he had just taken a drag of weed. Fuck that, Rachel Berry was better than Weed!

Then Jesse had to go ruining the moment...again.

"Wait a minute! This loser puts illegal drugs in food your batter...without your permission...and you're fucking grateful!"

Rachel shot Jesse a glare that could singe his perfectly manicured eyebrows right off, and replied with a voice that rang with equal parts ice and fire.

"Jesse, I would appreciate if you refrain from calling my friends 'Losers', or anything else of the like, and furthermore, Noah was doing what he was doing because he cares about me and glee club."

She paused, and both of them didn't dare say anything, because she definitely wasn't done.

"Something which I should note you, don't seem to be interested in helping with."

Jesse looked incredulious.

"Me! I'm not even on your fucking glee club! And what the fuck are you doing asking this jerk off to help you for huh! I thought you said there wasn't anything going on between you two!"

Puck was tensed and ready to strike, he was already about to shove the prick back a few feet for getting all up in Rachel's face, but he decided to hold back for a moment. He knew from personal experience that Rachel could take care of herself.

"There's Nothing going on Jesse, I already told you-"

But Jesse cut her off Roughly, and Puck realized that his self restraint was only holding on by the thinnest of threads...just one ounce of pressure and-

"Bull shit!"

Jesse stood up suddenly, and Puck followed the movement, ready for a fight with the dick that was treating his baby girl like some kind of liar. If Rachel Berry was anything, it was painfully honest.

Puck instructed Jesse in a cold voice.

"You're gonna apologize to Rachel right now, she was telling the truth you little fucker, and she doesn't deserve a prick like you calling her a liar."

Jesse looked shaken for a moment, but like always, he was confident that no one would dare hit him. After all, at Carmel, there was an unspoken rule that you didn't mess up the pretty boy's face. because the principal wouldn't take kindly to somebody that was scratching up the golden goose. Jesse, however,was convienantly forgetting that Noah Puckerman didn't go to Carmel High School, and had no qualms (other than Rachel's deadly ire of course), with beating his scrawny ass.

"Well it doesn't look like a lie to me. I come in and find her in her fucking pj's, without a fucking bra!"

His voice was rising, and the deep stain of red on Rachel's cheeks only gave cause to incense Puck further.
But Jesse wasn't done yet.

Just one more thread left-

"And then, on top of it all, she's here with some guy, acting like some kind of slu-"

SNAP!

That was it for Puck, he took a swing, landing a blow right on Pretty boy's jaw. Jesse went stumbling back, grabbing at the kitchen counter for support, gaining it, then flying towards Puck with an unexpectadly fast movement.

He managed to shove Puck back, and both of them went stumbing over Rachel, fortunately, neither of them causing her harm. Her high pitched scream, however, could be heard throughout the kitchen...and probably most of the subdivision considering the door was still open. And she followed after them, cradling her injured hand against her chest, as they carried their brawl out into the Berry living room.

She alternated between telling them to stop, and moving/catching different articles in the room which were knocked over in the midst of the tv-teenage-drama-worthy fight. She'd finally had enough, and managed to grab onto Noah's shoulder, stopping him immidetely.

Because despite his absolute and utter loathing of Jesse, and his strong desire to pummel the little shit, Rachel was still his definite first priority. He turned his head to look at her, and in that movement, caused her greater harm than he could have possibly forseen.

Because in that moment, Jesse took full advantage of his opponants vulnerability, and sent a full out suckerpunch towards the side of Puck's head. However, due largely in part to Jesse's partially blind swolen eye, which was in turn due in turn to Puck's fist, Jesse misjudged the distance between his swinging fist, and Puck's unsuspecting face. And the full force of his punch was let loose on one very unsuspecting Rachel Berry. Who was knocked backwards and to the floor by the momentum, hitting a coffee table on Her way down.

Her head swam in and out of a misty black territory, and the last sight she saw before she passed out, was a rather bloody, injured, absolutely fucking frantic, Noah Puckerman.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Would that insesant noise not stop!

Rachel Berry was aware that she was lying prostrate on a very uncofortable bed that reeked of rubbing alchohol and a variation of the other smells that inevietably filled hospitals.

It took several moment, and no small ammount of effort on her part, to react to the soft hands that gently nudged her into the real world. She blinked several times as she gazed up at a very pretty young woman in awkard baggy clothing.

"Are you an angel? Did I die? Is Amy Winehouse here?"

Her voice rose in both pitch and volume, and she responded to her own loud volume with a wince. Ouch. She hadn't expected to have such a headache in heaven.

The woman, who was a nurse in reality, laughed softly and said in a gentle voice.

"No sweetie. You're not dead, and this is definitely not heaven. But I'm pretty sure Amy wouldn't be here even if it was."

Despite the throbbing in her head, Rachel managed a decent glare, and said in her usual impertinent voice.

"It's very shortsighted to simply assume that simply because Amy had a troubled life and struggled with substance addiction that she never made it into heaven."

Her voice was firm, and the nurse gave her a look that said they were definitely keeping her an extra day for examination, before she replied.

"Of course, I suppose you're right. But right now, I'm more worried about you. How do you feel?"

Rachel scrunched up her face in confusion, and in doing so, felt a sharp and unmistakable pain.

Then, it all came tumbling back into place, the events of the past couple hours that was.

She and Noah had been making cupcakes.
She and Noah had been kissing.
She and Noah had been interrupted by Jesse.
She had burnt the cupcakes.
She had burnt herself.
She had gotten Jesse and Noah in a fight.
She had tried to break up a fight.
She had gotten punched in the face.

It took Rachel a moment to process this information correctly, the painkillers, although pleasant, seemed to be slowing down her usally quick mind.

Jesse had punched her in the face!

Then she rememered falling back onto the coffee table and hitting her head, and it didn't take Rachel long to realize that she was in the hospital, most likely because of a concussion.

She reached her hand up to feel her head, which felt unnaturally heavy, and before she reached her scalp, the nurse stopped her.

"No no sweetie. Don't do that. It's not good for you to mess with your head right now. Do you remember what happened."

Rachel started to nod, then winced, and murmured out.

"Yes, I realize that I was injured."

The nurse seemed ammused by Rachel's definitely odd way of phrasing everything in a perfectly precise, gramatically correct manner.

"Yes, you were, and you have a big ole' pump knot on your head and one heck of a shiner."

Rachel winced, this time, not from pain. Although, that probably had something to do with it anyways.

"Where's Noah...Jesse...My Dads!"

Rachel nearly shot up in bed, were it not for the nurse's arm restraining her, and then the pain kicked in.

She groaned and fell back. The expression 'Hit by a truck' seemed to by an apt description of Rachel's physical state at the moment. The nurse gave Rachel a stern look, that Rachel interpreted to mean the nurse wasn't going to tell her anything if she didn't stay still. Rachel exhaled an impatient sigh and said,

"I'll obey your instructions...but please?"

The nurse gave her a suspicious look, but sighed and continued, probably realizing that Rachel was an expert at getting the information that she wanted.

"Well, your boyfriend...or both of them."

She gave Rachel a questioning look, but Rachel just motioned for her to continue.

"Well, they were both in pretty bad shape too, and we actually had to treat one of them with stitches."

Rachel gasped, and wondered silently who it was. Her silent question was answered in the next moment ,however, as the nurse continued without pause.

"Then, the other one, the big dude with a mohawk."

Rachel relaxed involuntarrily, immensely relieved that it wasn't Noah who was seriously injured.

"Well we thought he was gonna tear all the stitches out of the little guy all over again, so we had to seperate them, we haven't let either of them see you yet because we thought it might cause a ..."

She hesitated, grasping for words.

"Disturbance, in the hospital. When your fathers..."

The nurse drew the word out in her southern accent, as if trying it out on her tongue, probably not used to the same sex marriage arrangement as Rachel was.

" got here, they told both the boys to go home. Apparently..."

The nurse shot Rachel a chastizing glance.

"They didn't know either of the boys, and didn't believe that you were dating either one."

Rachel just continued tracing the boring, circular pattern on her hospital gown, before asking,

"Where are they now?"

"Well, they stayed here all night, and then one of them ran home to grab some things when we told them we were keeping you a few more nights. The other one just left to get some coffee a few minutes before you woke up."

Rachel accepted this answer in silence, and sat quietly, wondering how she ,of all people, had managed to get herself into this prediciment. Then, all of a sudden, the nurse asked in a conspiratorial tone.

"So I'm dying to know...Which one is your guy?"

Her grin was downright mischievious, and just as Rachel was about to answer, her James Berry's voice rang out from the doorway.

"Yes, Which one was it Rachel."

Her head involuntarily snapped sideways towards the door, and this was followed directly by a pained moan at the physical reaction that her movement had caused. It took a moment to reposition herself to her liking, and her father's heart to restart. Then, her he started again.

"Because I couldn't be sure of which one I was going to shoot until I knew the answer."

Most fathers would simply joke about such things, but at this moment, James Berry had a completely straight face. And seemed to be ignoring the rather obvious face, that he was standing in the middle of a hospital, with a nurse ,of all people, to bear witness of his premeditated violence.

But one look at the nurse's face said that she wouldn't say a word should either of the boys be wheeled in on a gurney with a shotgun wound. And if any other sane person on the planet saw James Berry's face right at that moment, they wouldn't either.

Rachel shifted uncomfortably on the stiff, lumpy, bed, and answered unsurely.

"I-I'm not really sure."

Her father frowned, obviously unhappy with her vague answer.

"Well let's start with something easier."

His voice was dangerous. As would any father's be when he was facing his small, injured, daughter, lying prosterate with a black eye, in a hospital bed. Most importantly, after being placed there, supposedly, by a boy.

"How about you tell me what dead man put you here."

Rachel knew she had to be careful about how she worded her next sentance, and it took her a couple seconds to collect her thoughts, largely due to the incessant throbbing in her head, and the fuzzines caused by it.

Thankfully, that bought her all the time she needed, for someone else to step in and answer for her. Because just then, there was another presence in the room.

"I could answer that for you that sir."

It was Noah, standing tall and confident in the doorway that her father had just vacated.

James turned to see this unwelcome visitor, and said in a harshe voice.

"I thought I told you to leave you little punk."

Puck looked from Rachel, with an expression that varied between rage and absolute grief, and then back to James with a firm, resolute set to his chisled jaw.

"With all due respect sir. I couldn't just leave. I had to make sure Rachel was ok."

He paused, and looked back towards Rachel, almost as if to prove his previous point.

"Now that I know she's ok..."

Puck paused and took a deep breath, knowing that James Berry had every intention of punishing either one, or both, or his daughter's supposed attackers.

"I think you deserve to know what happened."

With the famous and ever dramatic Berry timing, Alan Berry entered through the door, saying,

"I brought coffee for al-"

He was cut off when he saw Puck, and the corners of his eyes tightened. He seemed to be about to say something similar to what James had already stated in terms of threats, when James cut in.

"Alan. Good you're here. This young man-"

He shot a deadly glance towards Puck.

"Was about to explain to us why our precious daughter is lying in the hospital bed with a concussion and a black eye."

Alan looked over towards Rachel, and noting she was awake, said,

"Hey there darling, do you feel allright?"

Rachel managed a weak response.

"Fine Daddy, listen to Noah,"

Alan turned back to Puck, who was already the focus of the other occupants of the hospital room.

"Well young man...you can start any time."

Puck spared one more intense glance towards Rachel, then turned back towards his jury.

"Well, Sirs, Rachel and I were making cupcakes for a glee club fundraiser and-"

Alan interrupted him, his voice high pitched both with shock, and his natural feminity.

"Rachel...baking!"

Both he and James's eyebrows rose with suprise, and when they looked over towards Rachel, she was frowning.

"Oh just shut up and listen."

Puck chuckled softly, then caught himself, shifting his attention back towards the much needed explination he was providing the two fathers of his girl, explaining the reason for Rachel's current state.

"And she spilled batter on herself, so she had to take a shower and change."

Rachel's fathers gave her a look that told her she was going to hear about taking a shower while she was home alone with a boy later, before they both turned back to Puck.

"But then Jesse showed up."

Puck's jaw tensed, a nerve in it ticking, and Rachel's fathers both noted the fact that he said 'Jesse' like an oath.

"And when Rachel accidentally burned herself,"

He motioned towards Rachel's wrapped hand, a fact the nurse had completely forgotten to mention, being as caught up as she was in the dramatic love triangle that was definitely the most exciting part of her day.

"Jesse started getting all jealous, I warned him, but he kept saying things."

He stressed the word, and James asked before Puck could continue.

"What sort of 'things' young man?"

Puck shot an apologetic look towards Rachel, before saying.

"He started to call your daughter names sir, I don't exactly wish to repeat them, considering that they were extremely disrespectful."

His voice was as cool as ice, and both Alan and James looked towards Rachel for confirmation. At her nearly imperceptible nod of the head, both of their eyes cooled dramatically, and James looked like he was itching for a shotgun, even a paintball gun at least, honestly, he just wanted to shoot the little prick.

"I'm not proud of myself sirs, but I punched him. I initiated the fight. I mean, we didn't get that far, but when Rachel tried to break it up, Jesse took advantage. He tried to punch me when my back was turned, and...well, he missed."

Puck's voice nearly crackeled with the violent tension that still lingered in his bones, his body still longed to take Jesse St. James for 8 rounds in the ring and make him wish he hadn't ever laid eyes on Rachel Berry.

Then, the nurse interrupted.

"If you didn't get that far before she stopped you,... Well then why did this other guy-Jesse-, why did he have such severe injuries?"

Puck took a moment to reply, answering carefully.

"Well, after I made sure Rachel was allright, I mean, after the guys in the ambulance picked her up,"

Both Alan and James winced.

"I um...I kinda went to town on Jesse."

His voice was low, quiet almost, but it rang with a deep fierce protectiveness. Looking back up at Rachel's dads, he said,

"I'm really sorry about your living room sirs. I don't think we broke anything. But your carpet didn't take it so well."

But despite Puck's fears of being punished for ruining the once pristine white carpet, both Alan and James were sighing in relief, mostly because when they had seen all that blood, both of them had instantly jumped to the conclusion that it had been Rachel's. When in reality, Rachel had lost very little blood in a small pool on the floor by the table.

It probably didn't say great things about James's moral fabric that the idea of it being this Jesse kid's blood gave him more saticfaction than regret. Alan, however, was the first one to speak. He walked over to puck, and clapped his hand on Puck's shoulder in his attempt at a masculine gesture, he failed of course, but it was a nice attempt.

"Well son, I wouldn't be apologizing If I were you. I think you saved the both of us a lot of trouble."

Rachel looked shoked, and said,

"Daddy!"

James just gave her a wry smile.

"Honey, I think Alan's speaking for us both when he says that this young man did us a tremendous favour."

He turned towards Puck, his manner notably less frosty than previously, and asked,

"What's your name young man?"

"Noah."

He replied confidentally with a grin towards Rachel, it was almost their own private joke, his real name that was. And Puck realized that it was probably the first time in years he had actually introduced himself by his real name.

"Noah Puckerman Sir."

Alan smiled and said to Rachel,

"Is this the one you told me about?"

Rachel blushed

"Daddy!"

James turned towards Alan.

"She talked to you about him? How come you didn't tell me?"

As Rachel's father's squabbled, Puck walked over towards Rachel with a cocky smirk on his sexy lips.

"So...you told your dad about me?"

His voice was low and seductive, causing Rachel's blush to intensify. Then, all the commotion was interrupted by the confused, and very irritated voice of the nurse.

"Hold up everybody!"

The room was silent. She turned back towards Rachel.

"You never answered my question."

There was a pregnant pause as they all waited for her to continue.

"Which one is your boyfriend?"

Rachel blushed even deeper if that was possible, and she looked over towards her fathers.

"Well...It was Jesse."

There were noises of outrage from both her father's and the nurse, and Puck just stared at her with that intense, smoldering, expression from their early days in glee. Then she interrupted them again.

"But! Now...Well, it's definitely not him anymore."

There were sounds of approval and satisfaction from all around the room, and Rachel looked up into the big green eyes of Noah Puckerman, and was greeted with the best sight of all.

They were brimming over with unconditional acceptance...approval...and

Love?

Rachel hadn't ever read that expression in his eyes before, but it was definitely something more than his usual lust, or desire. It was soft and warm, like freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, and it seemed to envelope her into the warmpth that could be found there.

Unbeknownst to the patrons of hospital room 133, they weren't the only ones viewing this touching moment. Standing by the window, watching in a rather creepy and voyeristic manner, was Jesse St. James.

His jaw clenched in a less threatening and masculine manner than Pucks, and he could feel his hands forming fists. His face ached, and the stitches on the outside of his left arm strained against the tightly pulled skin.

He had learned the hard way that he most definitely couldn't go up against Puck, but he wasn't one to let go easilly, and he still planned to have his revenge. Since Puck was out of the picture, that only left one choice,

Rachel.

He had already called and cancled his transcrips for Mckinley, he had a feeling that he and Rachel wouldn't be together much longer after this. But he had somthing else, something Rachel wanted much more than just a boyfriend.

Her Mother.

And he would use that precious bargaining chip as a weapon, a weapon to make Rachel Berry regret she had ever left him for this good for nothing delinquint who had nothing to his name other than a mohawk and temper issues.

Sooo, whadja think? I got rid of Jesse (per your all's requests), and I'm bringing back puckleberry. Don't worry, there's still plenty more comming in this story, and I hope you all appreciate the fact that I'm posting this at midnight with a sprained wrist lol. soooo, if you want another long freaking chapter almost directly after the other one, Remember than Reviews with actual opinions and ideas really get my creative juices flowing and I pump out chapters way faster than if I'm not inspired...so REVIEW REVEIW REVIEW!