Broken

Chapter 23- Getting on with my Life

A/N: Sorry this update took longer to get out. Blame it on the Holidays! Happy New Year everyone!

The sun beat down on the two sleeping figures sprawled out onto the large bed. Rachel woke with a start, not remembering where she was. She closed her eyes immediately, the sun was just a tad too bright for her taste. As she slowly opened her eyes this time to adjust to all the light, and took a quick assessment of her body. She was sore in places she never knew could be sore, she was naked with only a sheet wrapped around her body and as she glanced down at Puck she realized he too was without clothes. Then the memories slowly came back to her.

"God Rach..." Puck rested his head on her shoulder trying to breathe deeply as his girlfriend continued to roll her hips against him. She has never been bold enough to do this. Sure, she started some of their make outs, but he's never seen her like this. "Baby, we need to cool it down a bit."

"Why?" Rachel turned in his arms, finally being able to press her lips against his. "We've been dating for five months Noah. I trust you with my life, I love you. I'm ready for this. I'm ready for you."

She smiled at the memory, smiled remembering how Puck scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bedroom. She loved how he took his time. How he showered her with kisses and made her feel loved. He took his time with her and never once pressured her to do something she didn't want to do. Rachel lay back down, snuggling into a still sleeping Puck, and let exhaustion take her again.

...***...***...***

Puck pulled the warm body closer to him, burying his head into the soft head of hair. He moved his head to gently kiss Rachel's neck.

"God Rach, I love you baby." Puck moaned as he dipped his head to kiss her throat.

"Noah..." Rachel moaned leaving Puck to groan. He wasn't used to hearing his given name like that. And he certainly wasn't complaining.

"Rach, are you 100 percent positive?" Puck looked into her large brown eyes, looking for any doubt or hesitation.

"Yes, please Noah." With that Puck kissed her lips hard.

Puck shook the thoughts from his head, willing his erection to go down. He knew Rachel would be in no shape for round two this morning. He closed his eyes, just enjoying these few moments with Rachel in his arms. All too soon she began to stir in his arms, he leaned down and gave her a sweet kiss on her cheek. "Morning love," Puck rasped out.

"Good morning Noah," Rachel carefully rolled over to face him.

"How do you feel?" Puck rubbed her bare side.

Rachel sighed leaning into Puck. "Sore. Very sore, but it's a good sore. Stop over thinking, I don't regret a single thing we did last night. If anything, I want to do it again, make love to you. Because that's what we did. I love you Noah." Rachel sealed it with a kiss to his lips.

"Love you too babe." Puck nuzzled her cheek. "I don't want to move." He groaned after a moment though, thinking about how hungry he was getting, and the fact that getting food would mean getting dressed and going out. "C'mon babe, time to get up and go find food." Puck kissed her cheek once again before leaping out of bed to get a pair of sweats and a t-shirt.

Rachel sighed in contentment and snuggled deeper into the bed, "Can't you go get food and bring it here? I'm too comfy to move," she mumbled into her pillow.

Puck laughed and kissed Rachel on the forehead, "Come on, let's go," he watched as Rachel sat up, scratching her head.

"Alright, I'm up, I'm up." She searched the room for her yoga pants and flannel shirt, quickly getting dressed and meeting Puck in the living room. "Where are we going to eat?"

Rachel's voice broke Puck from his train of thought. "Um, before we leave we need to talk." Puck was concentrating on the windows, looking out at the snow covered roofs and the sandy beach not too far away.

Rachel walked wearily over to him, putting her hand on his arm. "About...?" Her logical side was telling her that it had nothing to do with a breakup and more with a concern he must have. But her head? It was telling her to run; she didn't want to have her heart broken. Especially after last night. She shook her head when she heard Puck mumble something. "What?" Was her logical response.

"Fuck Rachel. I've never forgotten before. I'm so sorry Rach, I really am, I was just so lost in the moment. I wasn't planning for this to happen, and I love that it did. I'm so sorry, please forgive me." Puck rushed out all in one breath.

Rachel was still unsure of what he was apologizing for, she had missed the first part of it. "Noah, I have no idea what you're talking about. Please explain it to me," Rachel squeezed his arm, coming around to his front to look him in the eyes. "Look at me, tell me what's wrong?" Rachel was still panicking that something serious had happened.

Puck glanced down at her, seeing her eyes wild with concern. "We...um, we didn't use any..." Puck heaved a sigh, he wasn't used to having to confront these issues like this. "We didn't use protection." He mumbled, scared shitless of the consequences that could follow.

"Oh...well then, um." Rachel was trying to wrap her head around what he was saying. "It's not all your fault, I should've said something or taken the precaution myself." Rachel sighed, she hated to think of what he would do if he found out she wasn't all too concerned. And not for the reason of trapping him with a kid. She just wasn't ready to tell him yet, someday but not now.

"But...what if you become pregnant? What would we do? I haven't graduated from college and I wanted you to experience the city and college... The morning after pill, we could go get one...if you want..." Puck trailed off, waiting for her reaction.

Rachel heaved another sigh, trying to keep the tears at bay. If by some miracle she was pregnant, she could never get rid of it. "Would it be that horrible if I was? I know we've never talked about it, but I want a large family some day. And if that someday is today, I wouldn't be upset." Rachel gently nudged her head into his chest. She felt Puck wrap his arms around her, rubbing her back soothingly. "I don't want that pill Noah. Yes, I'd love to go to college. But that's what daycares are for... If, and that's a huge if, this happens and you don't want to do it. Its fine, I could do it by myself, and I wouldn't hold it against you." She felt Puck stiffen, his hand stopping his ministrations.

"Rach... No. I wouldn't leave you because you're pregnant. God... My mother would kill me if I left you alone. Then she'd claim you as her child and take you in." Puck quietly laughed to himself thinking about how her inner mother bear would come out. "If this is something you want to take a chance on, then we'll do this together. And if you don't want to go to college you don't have to. I would never force you. You want to be a stay at home mom, then you can be." Just hearing the word 'mom' come from his mouth in reference to Rachel made something in him click. He liked thinking of Rachel being the mother to his future children. He thought they were still a tad young but he'd go with the flow and see where this took him.

...***...***...***

"Noah, before we go back home you need to go see Bridget and make this right with her," Rachel told Puck quietly on their way back from breakfast. "Take it from me, fighting with your sibling over trivial things is awful, and before you know it those trivial things are becoming bigger, more important things; and then you blink and you've lost four months of a relationship with your best friend." Rachel looked out the window, thinking about her strained relationship with Finn.

Puck sighed and grabbed Rachel's hand, "You're right babe. I don't want to let a few stupid items come between my sister and me."

"You can drop me off back at the house first if you want to talk to her alone," Rachel offered quietly.

Puck glanced at her quickly and shook his head, "No babe, its fine. I want you to be there with me. I think maybe you can give her an additional perspective on the situation."

Rachel smiled at Puck and nodded, "Okay. If that's what you want, I'd be glad to go with you."

The pair continued the car ride to the Puckerman household in silence, both thinking about everything that had occurred yesterday.

Rachel was so quiet on the ride that Puck was sure she had fallen asleep. He gently put his hand on her arm to get her attention, "Babe," he said breaking the peaceful silence in the car, "We're here."

Rachel broke out of the trance-like state she had been in for the entire car ride, "Hmmm," she hummed in question, before realizing where they were, "Oh. Sorry. I was thinking about Finn. I really need to make a better effort to reconnect with him. I can't exactly be telling your sister that she needs to make nice with you when I can't make nice with my own brother." She rolled her eyes and got out of the car, slamming the door.

Puck sighed, trying to conceal his annoyance with Rachel's sudden mood swing. He knew that the move, the fight with Finn, and everything with Jesse had been stressful for her, but it seemed like her highs and lows were becoming more severe and more frequent. He scrubbed his hand over his face roughly before getting out of the car and locking it. "Come on, let's get this over with," he snipped out as he walked over to Rachel and grabbed her hand.

"Noah," Rachel said questioningly at his sharp tone, "Is everything okay?" She looked up at him with worry in her eyes.

"Yeah, babe. Everything is fine. Just stressed," he responded, dropping a kiss to the top of her head.

Rachel nodded, uncertainly. "If you're sure. You seem upset," she told him with trepidation in her voice.

"I'm not upset, Rachel. Just leave it alone," he snapped at her, not thinking before he spoke.

"Yeah, you're right. Sorry," Rachel meekly told him, keeping her eyes on the ground. As Puck led her up to the front door Rachel replayed the last few minutes in her head to figure out where the conversation went wrong.

Puck looked at his girlfriend and instantly felt guilty when he saw how small she looked right now. She had her head down as they walked, her shoulders were hunched over and the arm of the hand he wasn't holding was wrapped around her waist. "Rach," Puck whispered, guilt seeping into his words, "I'm sorry baby. I'm not mad at you , I promise."

Rachel minutely nodded her head, "its okay. I pushed you. I shouldn't have done that. It was my fault." She chanced a glance at his face, not wanting to see the anger that she was sure was there, and was confused when she saw what she could only describe as concern and pain. Realizing they had been standing on the stoop for probably two minutes just staring at each other, she hesitantly opened her mouth again, "Are we going to go inside, or are we going to stand out here all day?"

Puck let out a relieved sigh that Rachel seemed to have forgiven him, for the moment. "Yeah, we're going in," he replied to her.

…***...***...***

Inside the Puckerman household, things were tense. Puck and Bridget were having a stand-off in the middle of the kitchen and Rachel was standing in the corner of the room, looking at the scene play out in front of her. "Will one of you please say something? You won't resolve anything by glaring at each other."

Bridget gave Rachel a withering look and sighed, "Fine. I'll start," she snipped. "I think its bullshit that Puck is getting everything. Just because Nana liked him more doesn't mean that I should just get a lousy trust fund, a stupid BMW and china set that I'll probably never even use. What does Puck need all that money for? What use will he get out of having all that jewelry? " She crossed her arms and started to storm out of the room, before her arm was grabbed. Looking up, Bridget assumed it was her brother, but when she saw Rachel's tiny frame in front of her, she was shocked at the anger she saw in the petite brunette's eyes.

"You listen to me young lady," Rachel growled at Bridget, glaring at her, "How dare you? How dare you act like you are getting nothing? That stupidBMW you were talking about is worth upwards of $85,000 dollars. That lousy trust fund can pay for college, or help you get settled into your own home. That china set probably has more value than anything Puck is getting, and you should feel honored to be getting it. Your Nana loved both you and Noah the same, she just had a different relationship with him than she has with you. For someone who has had the entire world handed to her, you're acting as if you know what it's like to struggle. You're acting like you were cut out entirely. You are fourteen years old, so start acting like it and stop acting like an ungrateful two year old," Rachel scoffed before letting go of Bridget's arm and turning to walk out of the room, "Oh, and one last thing," Rachel paused in the doorway, "Remember that your brother loves you, and if there was some materialistic piece of crap that got willed to him that you wanted, he would probably give it to you if you actually fucking asked." She stormed out of the room and left the house, slamming the front door behind her. As she walked to her car, she sighed. It was harder than she thought trying to talk to Bridget when her relationship with Finn was so strained. Trying the car door only to find it locked, she sank onto the cold ground and pulled out her phone to make a long overdue call. "Hi Finn, can we talk?"

A/N: Hope you all liked this chapter! If you want to read the lemon, let me know in a review and if enough people ask, I'll write it and post an outtake. Song title comes from The Pharmacist by Hot Rod Circuit. Let me know what you think, and happy 2015 everyone!