A/N: The title comes from an awesome story by Artemis Rayne. She was my inspiration for writing so many Artie stories, though mine can't hold a candle to what she's written. I encourage everyone to go dig through the archive and read them. Especially this particular one-shot, because she really captured the relationship between Artie and Puck in a beautiful way.

Lauren decided to use Artie as an excuse to pay Puckerman a visit, for he said he'd appreciate a ride to the gym that day. So on Friday, she agreed to pick her fellow gym rat up from Hummel Tires and Lube on her way, in hopes of having a moment to talk with Puck.

Artie looked quite official and serious as he stayed busy in the office, behind the computer screen. Lauren knew Puck was just on the other side of the wall in the shop, covered in grease, which turned her on but just for a second. Anytime she got hot and bothered over Noah Puckerman, she just reminded herself who he was. She was, of course, trying to be older and wiser. And the older and wiser version of Lauren wouldn't be swayed by a rugged man working hard in grease-stained coveralls if he'd done her wrong.

"Hey, I'll be done in just a second," Artie greeted her, looking up briefly before turning his eyes back to the screen. "I've figured out a few tricks in Excel that might help Mr. Hummel after I'm gone."

"Take your time." Lauren wandered behind the desk, heading towards the door that she knew led into the shop. Artie briefly did a double take over his shoulder as he realized she was headed off in search of Puckerman.

He was in the middle of a water break and nearly spit out the mouthful he'd just taken a gulp of when he saw her. She took some sort of pride in the fact that she could still intimidate him, after all this time. She was stoic and showed zero emotion on the outside, though inside, something in her tingled just a bit. She'd never let him know, though, thus establishing her dominance yet again.

"There's something I need to say to you," she said, digging her heels in and crossing her arms in front of her chest in a way that was meant to be menacing. Puck took a subtle step back, bumping into the car he'd been working on.

"Go ahead," he said, clearly not sure if he wanted to hear it.

"I shouldn't have let you make me feel like crap in high school." He started to open his mouth to respond to that, but she cut him off. "I know what you're gonna say. 'But Lauren, I dated you, how did that make you feel like crap?' Because. You made out with me in dark, private places but you didn't hold my hand in the hall. You gave me a cheap-ass box of candies for Valentine's Day because you assumed that's all I liked. You had to justify even liking me to every single one of your friends. You couldn't serenade me without insulting me. And I heard that when I finally dumped you, you told everyone that I was 'the one who got away very slowly.'"

"Uh, Puck?" The ridiculously nosy guy in the wheelchair appeared in the doorway with a box in his lap. It looked like he'd overheard her little ambush. "Those new spark plugs we ordered came in. Where did you want them?"

Artie pretty obviously had made an excuse just to come and overhear what Lauren had come to do that day. She made eye contact with him and smirked to let him know he'd fooled no one. Artie pretended not to notice.

Puck sighed. "I know, Lauren," he said. "You're right. I did all of those things. I have no excuse."

She didn't budge. "Then I'm waiting to hear two little words from you."

Puck didn't back down from the apology like she'd thought he might do, with a load of excuses ready for her. Instead, and with genuine sincerity in his voice, he gave her what she was waiting for: "I'm sorry."

"In his defense though," Artie piped up, as though he had any business being in this conversation. "Girls don't make it easy. I could never figure out when I'd gotten it right or when I'd messed up. You women and your impregnable walls."

"Oh, they're definitely preg-able," Puck said, with complete seriousness that made Artie hide a smile and the corners of Lauren's mouth twitched ever so slightly, nearly spoiling her intimidation factor.

"Well, that's what I came to do." Lauren shifted her weight awkwardly from one foot to the other. "Get an apology and forgive you. So... I did that. I forgive you now. Maybe, with any luck, I can move on and forgive the next one."

"What did Rutherford do?" Puck rightly assessed the situation, however lacking his general vocabulary skills may have been.

"He has a little girl but he lied about it to Lauren."

Good old Artie, always there to supply the latest news and gossip, even though Lauren really didn't remember asking for his help. Lauren fixed him with a menacing stare to let him that she wasn't above tipping his smart ass right out of his seat. Artie wisely pulled his wheels in opposite directions, whipped around, and headed back to the office.

"Well, well," said Puck, smugly. "So I'm not the only one who fell from grace. So that's why he needed money so badly. I take it he kept her."

"Yeah." Lauren figured that Matt's little secret getting out was just gonna have to be the price he paid. She did wonder, though, why he never confided in Puck, who definitely could have understood the position he was in.

"Nice." Puck had a distant and sad look in his eyes, and Lauren knew he was thinking of his own daughter, who'd been adopted but still went by the name he'd chosen for her: Beth.

"Yeah," Lauren said again. And then, because she now just felt nothing but sorry for him, she stepped towards him. One arm went out for an awkward attempt at a side hug, but then Puck pulled her in and embraced her fully.

"Uh, s-sorry..." He released her and she just stared at him, backing away and adjusting her sweater. "Listen, uh, it feels good to finally apologize for all of that. Thanks for giving me the chance."

Lauren just nodded. She didn't know what else to say, because she'd said everything she planned to get off her chest. Finally, it seemed like she could give him an honest smile in return, so she did just that.

"Hey, so, how's your head?" That next question he asked really caught her off-guard. Then she remembered her angry rant to him on the way to Regionals, after he'd commented that she was 'Fabray-ing.'

"Much better." She looked at her shoes. "I probably could even wrestle again, if I wanted to, but I'm just..."

"Scared?" Puck didn't look too sure of it as he asked this, and for good reason. Lauren had never let on that she was scared of anything, except for maybe the time she was a little scared of singing her first solo to the glee club.

"We'll go with traumatized," Lauren said, smirking. "It sounds tougher, right? But... yes. What you said. I just can't. So, that's it for me and wrestling, that's done. Maybe I'll just keep on Fabray-ing and see what happens."

Puck shook his head firmly. "Please, whatever you do... don't do that."

"Why not? It's what you like."

"It's what I thought I liked." Damn you, Puckerman. He still wielded some kind of power over her when he said crap like this. No wonder Lucy let him knock her up. "Tell Rutherford he should know he's a lucky guy."

"I'm supposed to tell you you're a lucky guy." She showed up at his doorstop that night because she guessed two days was long enough to give him the cold shoulder for his lies. The more time that passed, the less angry she felt. More like confused.

"I am, for sure, but, uh, who is the message from?" Matt was definitely pleased to see her there. And if he was pleased, the little head that poked around his legs was downright ecstatic.

"Well, hi there," said Lauren, as the little girl beamed back at her.

"Mariah, you're supposed to be in bed!" He fixed her with what was supposed to be a stern look. "I just tucked you in."

"But I saw it was Miss Lauren from my window, so I came back downstairs to say hi." And then little Mariah worked that pout.

Lauren stooped down to hug her, not knowing how she'd managed to earn the girl's affections so quickly, having just met her once before. She supposed a movie date and a purse with microwaveable popcorn was all it took when you were four.

"Goodnight, Miss Mariah," she said.

"Goodnight." She smiled a smile identical to her dad's.

Matt excused himself and gestured for Lauren to come in and take a seat while he took Mariah upstairs once more to tuck her in. Lauren made herself comfortable on the couch, kicking off her shoes.

She leaned over to reach for a blanket and as she did so, she noticed a small photo album on the table. Opening it, she quickly realized it was a baby book for Mariah. Against her better judgment, she started flipping through it. A few pictures of an ultrasound were on the first page, and the second showed Matt and Andrea standing in front of what appeared to be the hospital, Andrea cupping her belly and smiling next to the baby's father. The next picture showed them both together, in the hospital room, with the baby. And then there was one of each of them holding the newborn alone in the picture. But in the pages to follow, if anyone besides Mariah was in the picture, it was either Matt or an older woman that Lauren took to be his mother.

"Those are the only pictures of Mariah with her mom, yeah." Matt's voice interrupted Lauren's snooping and made her jump. He didn't look bothered by the fact that she'd picked it up and started looking through it. He looked pretty much resigned to the fact that he'd have to keep explaining.

"Did you...?" Lauren wasn't really sure why, but she had to know. "... uh, you know, try to like, work it out? Raise her together?"

Matt stepped over and took a seat by Lauren. "What you have to know is that Andrea was and I'm sure still is completely set on doing one thing and one thing only," he began. "And that's dancing. Professionally. And having a baby with some guy she'd just met was gonna ruin that."

"Hold up, did you say just met?" Lauren was bordering on sounding judgmental, she knew it, but Matt didn't strike her as the type of guy who would have a one-night stand. Then again, she knew less about him that she cared to admit.

Matt sighed. "Would you like the whole story?" He looked properly ashamed, at least. Just like Artie and all those girls in college. Who would have thought? Lauren could only nod in stunned silence at this. Matt rose to his feet.

"Where are you going?" Lauren asked.

"Getting you some coffee or whatever you'd like," Matt said. "Because... it's a long story."