"What?" Puck growled seeing Matt standing in his bedroom doorway. The last person he wanted to deal with right now was Matt. The dude was supposed to be his friend and not trying to steal his girl from him. That shit wasn't kosher. You don't go around stealing your boy's girl. The shit with Quinn didn't count. She came on to him. She got him drunk. He was too far gone to care that she was his best friend's girl. He did regret it come morning. He wanted to tell Finn the truth right from the beginning; it was Quinn that had to keep it a secret. So of course shit was going to hit the fan when the truth was finally out for the world to know. And he doesn't even know how Finn found out about Beth not being his. But Puck didn't care, because he wanted to take care of his daughter and not have someone else to do his job. Though in the end that thought didn't matter, because Quinn decided on her own that they weren't keeping Beth. And maybe that was the right choice in the end. And now? Now he has his chance at being the father he never had, being the father he wanted to since learning that Quinn was knocked up with his kid. And just when that starts to go in his favor, in walks his supposed best friend. That shit hurt.
"I'm not stealing Rach from you. She's more like a sister to me. Kinda hard to be anything but when she talked nonstop about you, even if I didn't know it at the time," he chuckled, braving his friend's wrath walking into the room to sit in the desk chair. "Rach took care of Beth a lot and it was easy to grow close to the little girl. But I'm just her Uncle Matty. I could never replace you as that girl's father, I wouldn't want to either." Puck scoffed at his friend's explanation. "Rachel told me about the whole situation and I thought it sounded like you and Quinn I just couldn't be for sure, because Rachel left out names, I thought if it was true, if that little girl was yours, I wanted to know her so I could tell her stories about her Father." Puck looked at his friend. "What Quinn did to you wasn't right, that little girl deserves to know that her bio Dad loves her and there isn't a thing he wouldn't do for her."
"Really?" Puck asked skeptically.
"Of course, I wouldn't move in on your girl or your kid," Matt told him seriously.
"What if you would have been wrong?" Matt thought over Puck's words carefully, gave him a shrug.
"Then the little girl would know that just because she didn't have her Father around, that she wasn't any less loved, and that he was doing what was right for his little girl, even if it ripped him to shreds," Matt spoke after a few silent moments. "I know I couldn't be sure about that, but anything to make the child happy, right?" He asked his friend. Puck nodded, knowing he would make a child feel loved even for a second. He knew better than anyone what it felt like to be abandoned by your father. "Look, I just had this gut feeling, but I didn't know how to approach that subject with Rachel. Maybe I should have told her about Lima, but I didn't want to focus so much on my past when we were hanging out. She didn't even tell me that she was leaving the City. I hated her for a long time after I found out she came here, but it wasn't her fault. She just wanted to have fun and not ruin our friendship by bringing it down," he shrugged. "We good?" Matt asked, moving across the room. He had spilled more of his emotions than he had wanted to. He was ready to go blow shit up on video games.
"Yeah, um thanks ya know," Puck told him. Matt gave him a funny look. "For looking out for Rach in New York these past few months and Beth, clearing things up," he explained further, rubbing the back of his neck. He wasn't the type of person to thank anyone for anything, unless you fell into the categories of family and Rachel.
"She looked out for me in New York. It was more for Rachel than for you," he replied with a sheepish grin. "I hate seeing her upset because I was stupid enough to get in the middle of something." Puck chuckled giving his friend a nod and followed him down the stairs and out the door. He was going to go fix things with Rach before he let it go on too far. He had just gotten her back he wasn't going to lose her that fast.
He frowned seeing that there were no cars in the driveway. He got out and made his way to the door. He wanted to run but he didn't want to seem anxious. He knocked and rang the doorbell and after five minutes of alternating between beating on the door and ringing the doorbell with no answer Puck left defeated. It wasn't until he was almost home that remembered that they were headed to the park today with Beth. He turned down street roads until he was headed in the right direction. The park was filled but there was no sign of Rachel or Beth there. He left feeling worse than before. He'd talk to her tomorrow at school.
Except she wasn't at school, he should know. He had most his classes with her and she wasn't in any of them. He didn't find her at lunch. It was the end of the day and Rachel was nowhere to be found. He had even tried to call her cell and her house and both times sent him through to leave a message. He never left a message; he did however send her a text that had gone unanswered. He was starting to freak out. He wanted to ditch school and go to her, but he didn't even know the one place she would be.
"Where's Rach?" He asked Matt, looking around in a frenzy.
"I haven't talked to her since yesterday at school," Matt responded. "Why something wrong?" He asked. He had spent his day getting everything in order to come back to school. He was fully enrolled and he was going to rejoin the football team and he had already been welcomed back to Glee with open arms. He had spent his day catching up with the rest of the guys he had yet to see since yesterday when he stopped in after school. The fact he hadn't seen Rachel all day, slipped through his mind. He was trying to give her space so she could have time with Puck. Hearing the worry in his friend's voice about Rachel he was starting to worry about the pint size diva that he had grown to care for in such a small amount of time.
"Fuck!" Puck cursed, running a hand through his 'hawk. Where were his girl and his daughter?
Football practice went by in a blur and he ran from the field to his truck. He raced through the streets of Lima to Rachel's house. He sighed a breath of relief seeing that there was a car in the driveway. He raced to the front door, knocking on the wooden door until Leroy had pulled the door open giving him a sad look.
"Where's Rach?" He asked, pushing his way into the house, making a dash up the stairs only to see that her room was empty. He dashed across the hall to where Beth's room was at and that was empty as well. "What's going on?" He asked in a panic turning around to see Leroy standing in the hall.
"Rachel didn't call you?" The older man asked. Puck shook his head. "Something has come up with Shelby and Rachel and Beth were needed. She'll be back on Sunday." Puck suddenly felt numb hearing those words. Why wouldn't Rachel call him or even answer his calls? It was messed up.
The drive to his house was all a blur. How he made it home and showered was beyond him. The empty bottle of Jack did nothing to recall the previous night. He pulled the blanket over his head, not feeling like going over to Mike's house for the ritual of video games on Saturday mornings before the party that night. This should be the time where he's out finding an easy lay to get over his problems with Rachel. But he couldn't do that, he was better than that. He'd lay around in his misery until Rachel came back.
He had left his phone off all weekend, not wanting to be bothered with why he was sulking around like a child. He was a badass and he didn't sulk, especially over a chick. But Rachel was different, made him see that he could be different, that he was better than what he was letting on. And he liked feeling like that. He liked feeling that he was better than his fuck up of a dad, that he was destined for something bigger and better than anyone in Lima, Ohio.
When Monday came around he had rushed to school. He waited by Rachel's locker but she never showed up. He said screw it and ran out the doors. He drove to Rachel's house. He was surprised to see that Rachel's car was sitting in the driveway. Worry shot through him on why she was missing another day of school. He rushed to the door to see Leroy leading a hysteric Hiram out of the house. Leroy was holding asleepy Beth in his arms. He frowned walking past them shutting the front door. Panic coursed through him seeing the red rimmed eyes of his girl. He said nothing pulling her tight against him.
"What happened?" He asked, running a hand through her hair as they lay curled up on the couch. She sniffled, moving further into his embrace.
"It's…" Rachel told him, not able to say anymore before another round of violent sobs came out. Puck placed a soft kiss to the top of her head. He looked around the room; nothing looked to be out of place.
"You don't have to tell me what happened, if you're not ready for that," Puck assured her. He was content with just holding her until she was ready to tell him what was going on. She nodded and curled up into him. They started to watch Funny girl, but the second Rachel fell asleep, Puck changed the channel stopping once he came across Transformers.
He was content in just holding his girl; letting her problems leave her while she was wrapped up in the one place he knew she felt safe from the world. Pride had shot through him at that thought alone.