Disclaimer: No ownership at all, to either the characters or the song, Never Forget, Take That.

A/N: This is the penultimate chapter and I'm feeling ever so slightly lost as to what to do with my time. I may feel the need to garden and do housework and other such rubbish. I think I need a new story idea, QUICK!

Graduation day finally arrived. Everyone in senior year was dressed in their red caps and gowns, waiting in line to be called to the stage in alphabetical order. Finn was looking round puzzled, he couldn't see Quinn who should be about four people in front of him. "Hey, Rachel" he whispered loudly then tried again, "Rach!" Rachel eventually looked round when someone behind her tapped her shoulder to let her know that Finn wanted her.

"What?" she whisper-shouted back, adjusting her cap.

"Where's Quinn?" he hissed, still looking puzzled, "she should be in front of me, don't tell me she didn't graduate, she's a straight A student."

"I don't know" said Rachel looking round, not seeing Quinn either, "maybe she's late." Rachel leant out of line and glanced further down the row of students, she saw the back of Puck, talking to someone behind him. She knew it was definitely him because no one else in school had a mohawk. "Noah will know where she is…" she was cut off by Principle Figgins calling the first student's name. One by one they walked on to the stage to collect their diplomas from Miss Pilsbury. Some people she hugged, some she shook hands with - big progress for Miss Pilsbury. As the next person was called the students already on stage lined up in rows, waiting for the last person to be called and the speeches to be over so that they could throw their caps in the air and be officially free of high school.

"Noah Puckerman" called Principle Figgins. Puck looked at Miss Pilsbury and mouthed silent words of thanks before collecting his diploma and a hug from her. This was a day he hadn't thought possible at one time. He never thought he'd be interested enough in his classes to focus and work hard to graduate. He knew it was only through Quinn's love and encouragement that he had upped his game. Miss Pilsbury noticed something. "Today?" she whispered, her eyes wide with excitement. Noah nodded and winked at her, a half grin on his face. On his way to his place in the line up Noah spotted both his mother and Quinn's mother sitting together in the audience and gave them a little wave. He got a surprise by who else he saw there too, waving and blowing kisses at him.

"Quinn Puckerman" called Principle Figgins to everyone's shock and surprise. Quinn and Noah smiled at each other as she stepped on to the stage. They heard a mass intake of breath and whispered calls of "What? Quinn what? Who?" coming from almost everyone in the auditorium and those still waiting in line who hadn't realised that it was Quinn who was stood behind Puck.

Noah's face broke into a huge grin, he clapped then put his fingers to his mouth to whistle loudly as he watched his wife collect her diploma and a hug from Miss Pilsbury, one of the few people apart from their moms who knew what they'd planned to do that first night in Las Vegas. Quinn, now wearing her wedding ring on the third finger of her left hand joined her husband on the front row, a shy smile on her face. Noah dropped a quick sweet kiss on her mouth as they joined hands. Now that he was holding his diploma in his left hand and waving it in the air, people could see that Puck had a gold ring on his third finger too. They'd put their rings back on this morning before leaving home. The last time they'd worn them was the night they got married, only wearing them for their first night together as man and wife, taking them off in the morning before the competition, keeping their secret from their classmates and Glee club team mates until this moment.

Once all the diplomas had been distributed to the graduates, Principle Figgins called Quinn to the podium at the front of the stage to make her speech as Valedictorian.

"As many of you know, my years here at McKinley High have not been without trials and tribulations." she began with a laugh, lots of people joining in and mumbling agreement. "My Freshman year was ok I suppose," she mused, "fairly uneventful. I made lots of friends, met a certain intriguing boy with a mohawk" she turned and winked at Noah, he smiled back, his expression shy, "and got into the Cheerios. The problem with being in the Cheerios is that it caused me a great deal of distress with self image. It's so easy to believe the bad about yourself when you get told it often enough." Quinn sought Sue Sylvester in the crowd and made eye contact with her briefly before allowing her gaze to roam again. "No young girl should be told she's fat, not even in a joking way. Being told that constantly and the lifelong feeling of not being good enough, always feeling like I had to compete with my sister's achievements to make my father proud, it didn't bode well for the future. So, to Sophomore year. I became Head Cheerleader and also got kicked off the squad. I dated the Quarterback of the football team and yes, cheated on him," she admitted, "I was president of the Celibacy Club and I got pregnant and I joined the Glee Club although not necessarily in that order." she joked, the audience laughed with her. "It's no secret that I wasn't truthful about who the father of my baby was to start with or that my parents threw me out. But once the truth finally came out, it was the happiest I'd ever felt in my life. I'd never felt like I belonged, really belonged to a family before." she turned to smile at Noah when she heard his "Hell yeah", a short hiccupped laugh escaping her as he hung his head, again his smile shy, looking at her through his eyelashes. "Yeah, you know who you are" she blew him a kiss, all the Glee clubbers adding their cheers to Puck's. Turning back to the audience she smiled again. "Both families, the Puckerman Family and Glee Club." Quinn turned serious. "Giving up our child for adoption was one of the hardest thing we've ever had to do, it isn't something I'd recommend to anyone. Well, teen pregnancy isn't something I'd recommend to anyone actually, it's hard, really hard. The stares, the whispers, the gossip, the lies, it's endless." she rolled her eyes. "And it hurts. A lot. Especially labour." she finished, shaking her head and blowing out a breath.

"It hurts just watching, let me tell ya!" Puck said, nodding his head, she turned again to smile at him.

"You are so lucky it was only your hand I was squeezing." she laughed then winked at him again, a wave of laughter and applause went through the assembled graduates who heard Puck's mumbled and heartfelt response of "Thank God" and through the people sat in the auditorium who hadn't but could guess.

"Junior year was very difficult at the beginning. My mom and I had just reunited. I decided that I needed time on my own to come to terms with giving up my baby only to realise that I wasn't living, I was just existing without the love of my life at my side. I was only half of a whole. I know that for the last year and a half we haven't been the most conventional high school couple, but for us it works. I rejoined the Cheerios, then left them again. Glee Club went to New York to compete in Nationals, unfortunately we didn't win but hey, we got to see New York and Noah and I also got to meet Beth again. And so to Senior year. This year has been amazing in some parts, devastating in others, but we've survived. We've been able to get to know our daughter again and spend time with her thanks to Shelby, her mommy" Quinn waved to Shelby and Beth in the front row who waved back. They were sat with Judy, Esther and Sarah "We've both been accepted to Yale," Quinn heard so many voices shouting "What? Yale?" she grinned, nodded and carried on. "Yes, you heard right, Yale, both of us. Glee Club won Nationals and as you might have realised when you heard my name being called, Noah and I got married when we were in Las Vegas for Nationals." Quinn shrugged. "This has been my life, our life, at high school, I wouldn't advise anyone to follow in our footsteps, it hasn't been easy and it hasn't always been good. So, to conclude my speech, my advice to all you underclassmen is take your time. Live. Love, learn. Love some more and never, ever stop living." She shrugged again at the end of her speech. The audience erupted into thunderous applause and loud cheers. Puck left the line up to come and take her in his arms, congratulating her on her speech. Shelby walked to the edge of the stage and stood Beth on it so she could toddle over to her birth parents, a small bunch of flowers clutched in her hand. Noah crouched down with his arms open wide, Beth ran in to them. He picked up the little girl who hugged and kissed him and tried to hand him the flowers intended for Quinn, drawing "awwwws" from the audience. Noah held Beth so that she could lean down to give her flowers to Quinn as well as a hug and a kiss. The audience cheered and clapped again as well as adding quite a few more "awwws".

Principle Figgins took the stage once more. "Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the graduates of McKinley High 2012." As soon as he finished speaking the whole of the graduating seniors took the caps from their heads and threw them in the air, cheering and whooping. Beth, still in Noah's arms cheered too. Once the traditional throwing of the caps was over, Principle Figgins spoke again. "I have asked New Directions to sing one last song before everyone goes their separate ways. Please show your appreciation to NEW DIRECTIONS."

The team took a few moments as the stage was cleared of graduating students, podiums, platforms etc. The rest of the group joined Noah, Quinn, Santana, Kurt, Mike, Finn, Rachel and Mercedes in the wings. They'd removed their gowns and underneath had on their red and black Nationals costumes. Noah and Quinn braced themselves for a thousand and one questions.

"What the fuck, Puckerman. Why didn't you tell any of us?" Finn demanded, just the slightest bit annoyed. He and Puck had been friends for forever.

"This was something just for us. We didn't want any drama, we've had enough of that, or distract from Nationals." Puck explained, his arm round Quinn's shoulders. "Hey, dude, have you met my wife?" he asked Finn, laughing. That broke the ice, everyone offered them congratulations and hugs and kisses.

"That first night in Vegas" Mercedes said, a look of concentration on her face. "You didn't want to come to dinner, you already had plans, that's what you said." She looked to Quinn who nodded her confirmation. "Hell, don't tell me you had an Elvis wedding and I wasn't invited" she said, her diva tone very evident.

"No, it wasn't Elvis. We had a Skype wedding, with our moms, sisters, Beth and Shelby watching on Skype." Puck admitted, laughing about it. "It was pretty cool."

"And the separate room for a present." Tina realised.

"A wedding night and not be together? I don't think so." Puck scoffed.

"That's what was so funny when we all went out that second night. Don't you remember?" Artie looked round at the rest of the club. "We were singing Bruno Mars, Marry You and dancing with the girls, these two kept cracking up."

"Well, singing about a little chapel on the boulevard and no one will know was kind of funny and exactly right." Quinn admitted. "Although Mr Schue saw us going out and knew because of what we were wearing."

"And fuck Puckerman" exclaimed Santana, "Yale? Who did you sleep with to manage that?"

"Talk later. Song first. Party at our place tonight. Ok?" Puck asked, everyone agreed.

They took their places on stage, Puck, Finn, Artie, Blaine and Sam at the front, flanked by the rest of the team. Kurt stood to the side for the first lines:

Kurt:
We've come so far and we've reached so high
And we've looked each day and night in the eye
And we're still so young and we hope for more

Sam:
We've come a long way
But we're not too sure where we've been
We've had success, we've had good times
But remember this

Puck:
Been on this path of life for so long
Feel I've walked a thousand miles
Sometimes strolled hand in hand with love
Everybody's been there

Finn:
With danger on my mind I would stand on the line of hope
And I knew I could make it
Once I knew the boundaries I looked into the clouds and saw
My face in the moonlight

Artie:
Just then I realized what a fool I could be
Just 'cause I look so high you don't have to see me
Finding a paradise wasn't easy but still
There's a road going down the other side of this hill

All/Puck:
Never forget where you've come here from
Never pretend that it's all real
Someday soon this will all be someone else's dream
This will be someone else's dream

Puck:
Safe from the arms of disappointment for so long
Feel each day we've come too far
Yet each day seems to make much more
Sure is good to be here

Finn:
I understand the meaning of 'I can't explain this feeling' now
And it feels so unreal
At night I see the hand that reminds me of the stand that I made
The fact of reality

All/Puck:
Never forget where you've come here from
Never pretend that it's all real
Someday soon this will all be someone else's dream
This will be someone else's dream

Blaine:
We've come so far and we've reached so high
And we've looked each day and night in the eye
And we're still so young and we hope for more
But remember this

Sam:
We're not invincible, we're not invincible, no
We're only people, we're only people
Hey we're not invincible, we're not invincible
So again I tell you

All/Puck:
Never forget where you've come here from
Never pretend that it's all real
Someday soon this will all be someone else's dream
This will be someone else's dream

Never, never forget where
Never pretend that it's all real
Someday soon this will all be someone else's dream
This will be someone else's dream

All:
Never, everybody sing, oh baby
Never, no never, never forget for love
Someday, louder, louder, louder, louder loud
Never, everybody sing that song
Never, yeah louder, louder, loud now
Someday, come on, come on, everybody, everybody
Everybody, everybody, everybody

Never forget where you've come here from
Never pretend that it's all real
Someday soon this will all be someone else's dream
This will be someone else's dream

Kurt:We've come so far and we've reached so high
And we've looked each day and night in the eye
And we're still so young and we hope for more

New directions took their final bow, their final applause. The end of an era.