Disclaimer-I still don't own Glee

Thanks for reviewing everyone, you are wonderful :D

Chapter 35-Number Seventy-Four

The idea seemed absurd to him. He didn't care that Sam was dead; he hated the boy when he was alive and he continued to hate his memory now that the coward had killed himself. If Puck had his way, then he'd throw an awesome party and celebrate. He'd dance on Sam's grave and leave graffiti on his tombstone. Of course, in this situation, Puck did not get his way.

So it was, that shortly after Sam's suicide, Puck found himself dressed head to toe in a black suit sitting between Kurt and Quinn as they attended Sam's funeral.

All the members of the Glee club were attending the service. Not to pay their final respects to Sam, but to offer their support to Mike. As for Kurt and Quinn, Puck supposed they felt this was something they had to do; a way for them to bury the recent past and overcome the metaphorical demons Sam had tormented them with.

Most of the guys from the football team had also shown up, the only real display of team spirit they'd ever had. They didn't know the truth about Sam of course. They didn't realise they were mourning the loss of a woman-beating rapist. Even Mike didn't realise the truth about his closest friend. For that, Puck felt bad. He hadn't really considered how lonely Mike must have been since Matt's transfer. Perhaps that was why the Asian dancer fell into a relationship with Tina. Of course, Puck had then aided Artie in winning Tina back from Mike, thereby leaving him alone once more which inevitably led to him forming a friendship with Sam.

As Puck sat on the uncomfortable wooden bench, not even pretending to listen to the Priest's speech, he was very much tempted to launch to his feet and mouth off about what a piece of scum Sam had truly been. However, as much as he wanted to so he could unleash that anger, he did not. He couldn't bring himself to. That wasn't fair to the other people in the church who had come to grieve over the lie they had believed in.

Sitting up at the front was a sobbing woman who sported Sam's blonde hair. Puck assumed she was his mother. He didn't know how much her tears would increase if he stood up and shouted the truth for all to hear, and he didn't want to know. There was no need to make that poor woman cry any more than she already was. It would be easier for her to accept the suicide of the son she loved than to stomach the truth about the monster she had unknowingly raised.

It wouldn't be fair to Mike either. He'd already lost his friend; it would devastate him much more if he learned just who and what his friend really was. Mike was a good guy, he didn't deserve that.

Then there was Quinn. She had never wanted people to find out what had happened to her. If other people knew, she would be the subject of gossip for a long time until eventually all those pathetic gossipers found something else to talk about and ultimately forgot all that Quinn had suffered in a way the blonde would never be able to forget herself.

So for the sake of Quinn, for Mike and for Sam's friends and family, Puck held his tongue. He kept his features impassive so they wouldn't see his anger and disgust. He offered his condolences to Sam's mother as he crossed paths with her. He remained respectfully silent at the same time that everybody else did.

The service ended and by some unspoken agreement, the Glee club gravitated towards one another. They stood in a circle, most of them giving their attention to Mike and offering him comfort. Puck, Kurt and Quinn stood a little outside the circle all lost in their own thoughts.

The wake was to be held at Sam's house. The Glee club were all invited along but it was only Mike that truly wanted to go. Tina and Rachel offered to go with him for emotional support. Brittany and Santana left hand-in-hand, the Latina girl muttering something about how funerals made her inappropriately horny. To Artie's annoyance, Finn had sunk down and sat on his lap but the taller boy didn't seem to realise. He was just staring into space with a blank expression. Mercedes had moved closer to Kurt and Quinn and the three were now wrapped up in a giant hug, Puck standing alone with his hands in his pockets and his tie hanging loose around his throat.

"Finn, dude." Puck said kicking Finn's shin to gain his attention.

"Huh?" Finn replied dumbly after blinking his eyes a few times.

"You wanna get off of my boy Artie." Puck told him nodding to the wheelchair-bound boy squashed underneath Finn's weight.

"Oh, sorry man." Finn apologised instantly moving to his feet.

"It's ok." Artie replied. "So… what do we do now?"

"We can all go back to mine." Quinn suggested. "I'm not really in the mood to be a good hostess but I don't think I want to be alone either."

"Let's go white girl." Mercedes said and for the first time Puck truly appreciated how the smile that always sounded in her voice could make depressing situations seem less unbearable. "I vote for a movie, ice-cream and pizza."

Finn's stomach rumbled in agreement at that statement as they all made their way to Quinn's house on foot, Puck pushing Artie's wheelchair.

"You want me to go really fast?" Puck asked.

"Don't even think about it, Puck." Artie answered and Puck pouted, something that only Mercedes spotted him doing which caused her to roll her eyes.

They arrived at Quinn's place and Finn took it upon himself to reach for the phone and order pizza. Kurt and Mercedes hunted through the DVD collection for a film to watch and Puck helped Artie from his chair to a space on the sofa before joining Quinn in the kitchen where she was preparing drinks.

Together, they sat down and for about fifteen minutes they all stared at the television screen as the movie played. When the pizza man knocked on the door, Finn hurried to answer and returned shortly with three large pizzas for them to share. They chewed down their pizza slices, their eyes still on the movie but not really paying attention anymore. A conversation started, something meaningless but enjoyable. They managed to forget about the drama that had been suffocating them. They were able to laugh; even Quinn managed a natural smile. It felt like they were a normal group of teenagers again without a care in the world.

By the time the forgotten movie had finished and the pizza had been eaten, Mercedes grabbed hold of Quinn and Kurt's hands and pulled them to their feet. She started to sing, belting out her soulful vocals and Kurt eagerly joined in. Finn played out a beat on the table and Artie rapped over the others as Puck pulled Quinn to him and twirled her around in a dance.

It was fun and every single one of them ended up with a smile on his or her face. The girls brought out the ice-cream and they passed the spoon around, each taking a mouthful out of the tub before passing the spoon to the next person. They laughed and talked about Glee club, Artie talked about how things were going between him and Tina, Finn spoke fondly of Rachel and Puck told them all about the amazing blow-job he'd received the night before.

"I never thought I'd say this," Mercedes commented. "But that blow-job better have come from my boy, Kurt."

"Of course it was." Puck boasted as he made bed-room eyes at Kurt who was sat on the other side of the room. "My Barbie can do wonders with his talented mouth."

Artie congratulated Puck with a high-five, Kurt blushed fiercely under Mercedes' you-must-tell-me-everything stare, Quinn rolled her eyes and Finn seemed to be concentrating on erasing his memory of their most recent discussion.

The six friends joked around some more until Quinn's mother returned from work. After helping clean up the little mess they had made, they said their goodbyes. They all walked Mercedes home first before Finn and Kurt left in one direction and Puck headed another with Artie.

It was a surprisingly nice day out in terms of the weather. The sun was shining brighter than it had for a while and though there was a very present wind it wasn't too cold out.

"Why do you think he did it?" Artie asked suddenly looking up at Puck briefly as he wheeled himself along.

"You mean Sam?" Puck asked and Artie nodded in confirmation. "Fuck knows. Maybe he was guilty, maybe he was scared, maybe he was smart for once and realised the world would be better off without him."

"He did more than just beat Quinn up… didn't he?" Artie replied, not really posing his statement as a question for he seemed to already know the answer. Puck nodded in response, not willing to offer any more information. "I was sitting next to her in class the other day." Artie told him. "She wasn't concentrating on the lesson. Her pen never left the page though, she kept writing. When the lesson ended, she ripped the pages out and threw them in the trash. I took them out." He admitted.

"What did they say?" Puck asked.

"Everything." Artie answered giving Puck a significant look.

Running a hand through his strip of hair, Puck let out a sigh and his shoulders sagged. No more needed to be said, the word 'everything' covered it all. Artie knew the truth about what had happened between Sam and Quinn.

"What did you do with those pages?" Puck asked him wanting to make sure nobody else would get their hands on them.

"I burned them." Artie assured him and Puck instantly relaxed just a little.

"Good." He said.

"Do you think he's sorry for what he did?" Artie asked as he rested his hands in his lap and Puck took over pushing him up the small but steep hill.

"I don't know." Puck answered truthfully. "And I don't wanna know. Besides, he's dead. We're never gonna get the answers."

They were silent for a while and once they reached the top of the hill Artie wheeled himself again and Puck strolled alongside him. To Puck, the houses all looked identical on the street they were on. The same colour brick, same styled windows and the same size gardens with similar brands of cars parked in the driveways. Apart from one house, one garden that stood out, number seventy-four. The house itself looked the same, and the car in the drive could easily be mistaken for any of the others. But there was a difference in the front garden; the owners had a pond that was no doubt very deep. Artie came to a stop outside number seventy-four. Puck walked on a few steps before realising Artie was no longer moving. He stepped back over to his bespectacled friend waiting for him to speak.

"I thought about it a few times." Artie said.

"About what, dude?" Puck asked though he already had an idea.

"Ending it all." Artie told him. "After the accident, hardly anything seemed to matter anymore. I couldn't dance, not the way I wanted to, like how Mike and Brittany can."

"At least you're still a better mover than Finn." Puck pointed out and Artie's lips twitched faintly.

"For a long time, nobody wanted to be friends with the boy in a wheelchair." Artie explained. "Because I was different. They made fun of me because I couldn't do the things they could. It was tough on my parents too and my younger brother and sister. All the attention had to be given to me. That was hard on them, they were jealous and they resented me for it. And I resented them too, they could still things that I'll never be able to do again and they weren't taking advantage of that. My brother would sit around playing video games and my sister would sit down reading books or watching movies. Sometimes I wanted to scream at them. They could have been outside, running around, playing football, climbing trees… dancing. If they had to go over to a friend's or to the mall, they always begged my dad for a lift, complaining that it was too far to walk. I'd give anything to be able to walk."

"I'm sorry, man." Puck told him squeezing his shoulder gently. "That must suck."

"Yeah." Artie agreed with a humourless laugh. "It does suck. When I was thirteen, I became even more depressed than I was. I really wanted to end it, I almost did. I came here." He said nodding towards the garden of number seventy-four. "I was going to roll myself into the pond and let myself drown."

Not sure what to say, Puck crouched down to Artie's level, one hand still placed comfortingly on the boy's shoulder. They looked out at the pond together and Puck shuddered at the thought of Artie dying in that murky water with the fish.

"Why here?" Puck asked wondering why Artie would choose number seventy-four's garden as a place to commit suicide.

"Because this is where it happened." Artie explained. "The car-crash that put me in a wheelchair happened right outside this house."

"What made you stop?" Puck questioned. "I mean… obviously I'm glad you didn't go through with it and if you're having any suicidal thoughts right now I'll be diving into that pond after you but… what made you stop?"

"First of all, relax." Artie replied. "I like my life, its better than I thought it was back then. You don't have to worry about me being suicidal, those days are history."

"Good to know." Puck grinned. "Because I'm scared of fish. Tell no-one."

"Your secret's safe with me." Artie promised once he'd overcome his laughter. "But I stopped because the owner of the house came out. She had a daughter… in a wheelchair. She was younger than me, about five or six, a pretty little thing with the sweetest smile. Her mum stared at me in confusion when she found me a foot away from the garden pond but her daughter; she just smiled at me and introduced herself. She was so happy and so confident. It made me realise that I'd just been feeling sorry for myself and that I wasn't the only person in the world to have something bad happen and be living in a wheelchair."

"Go on." Puck encouraged softly sensing there was more.

"Her name was Lily." Artie told him. "I know it was kinda weird but she sort of became my best friend. I'd come round and help her with her homework and I was teaching her to play guitar. In return, she reminded me how to be happy and proud of who I was and to cherish all I love and forget my hate. She was a really smart, beautiful little girl."

"Was?" Puck asked quietly.

"Was." Artie answered in a whisper. "She died two years ago, in her sleep."

"I'm sorry." Puck replied.

Artie shrugged and forced on a smile before continuing his way down the street, Puck following after him and seeing the boy safely home.

To Be Continued

Please Review

Love and Hugs, IceQueenRia xxx