A/N: Thanks again to everyone who reviewed. Also, I'm glad that everyone seemed to enjoy Rachel's little blow up, it was really fun to write. And I'm sorry for the late update, I wanted to have it up yesterday, but I found out the hard way what happens when food poisoning is mixed with alcohol. In case anyone is wondering, it's not pretty. Anyway, since I'm feeling better now I wanted to get this chapter up.

Chapter 6

An ugly sight, a man who is afraid. –Jean Anouilh

How rare and wonderful is that flash of a moment when we realize we have discovered a friend. –William E. Rothschild

"Noah?" Rachel whispered after a few moments. "Where are we going?"

"It's a surprise."

"Noah."

"You'll like it, I promise." Rachel snickered in response. He glanced over at her, grabbed her hand, pulled it to his mouth to give her a soft kiss. "I really love that you can make jokes right now."

Her heart just about melted, "I didn't say anything."

"No, but you were thinking it."

She smiled at him; "You just make it so easy."

He grinned, "I have two things to say to that: one is because I never expect you to make any kind of sexual comment, even though you keep doing it to me." Rachel snickered again. "See. Second that's what she said."

She smiled and hummed along with the radio. He glanced at her again as he was pulling into a parking space. Her eyes were closed and she still had a soft smile on her face. Holy shit, she's fucking gorgeous. Unable to contain himself he unbuckled his seatbelt, slid over to her side of the truck. Her eyes fluttered open as his hand cupped her face, "Noah?"

"Shh." He brushed his lips softly over hers, barely touching. The third time he did it she let out a frustrated sound from the back of her throat, her tongue flicking out to trace his upper lip. He growled against her mouth, took her bottom lip between his teeth. Her gasp had him shifting to get better access to her mouth, causing him to smack his knee, painfully, against the dashboard. "Ow, fuck."

Rachel stared at him, giggling. "It's not funny, that fucking hurt."

"I imagine. However, given that we are in a public place, perhaps it's for the best." She glanced around, realized where they were. "Ralph's?"

He rubbed his knee again, "Yeah. The first thing that came to mind to cheer you up was ice cream, but I know that you don't like having too much dairy, especially this close to competition. And since Regionals are in like a month, I figured Italian Ices were the next best thing." He said slipping out of the truck.

She smiled again watching him jog around the front of the truck. To her surprise he opened the door, gripped her hips lightly, and helped her down. He closed the door quickly, glanced around, and backed her against the side of the truck. "Thanks." She said breathlessly.

"You know, we're blocked from view over here, no one can see us now." The wicked look in his eye had her breath backing up in her lungs.

"Is that a fact?"

"Dunno." He muttered taking her lips again. She responded immediately, throwing her arms around his neck.

She moaned breathily when he moved from her mouth to her jaw. His hand was running up and down the thigh she had hitched around his waist. When had that happened? She moved her hand down to push his out from under her skirt, "Noah, stop." She muttered. "It's too much." He kissed her again, "Too fast." This time she kissed him.

He rested his forehead against hers, relieved that he wasn't the only one panting. "One more?" He asked hopefully.

Giggling she stood on her toes, using his shoulders for leverage, and placed a chaste kiss to his lips. "I thought you were here to buy me an Italian Ice?"

He shook his head slightly, attempting to clear it, "Ices. Right. Maybe you could walk in front of me for a while."

She looked at him curiously, "What?"

Instead of answering he wrapped his arms around her from behind, pulled her close. "Oh." She gasped, feeling him pressing into her lower back.

"Where are we going now?" Rachel asked, climbing into the truck, black raspberry ice in hand.

"Back to your house." He replied licking his lemon lime ice.

"We can't, what if my neighbors tell my dads that your truck is in front of our house."

"I'll park a block or so away from your house. My mom's home today, so we can't go there."

He waited until they were in her room before bringing up her hip. "Rach."

"Hmm?" She replied dropping her bookbag next to her desk.

"Let me see your hip."

The look in his eyes had her shivering, with what she wasn't sure. "Noah, I..." she started, clearing her throat she tried again. "I can't stand here, half naked with you."

He raised an eyebrow, "Who says you have to be half naked?"

"Noah!"

He snickered, "Seriously? Also, I've seen you half naked before."

"Not that half."

"So it's okay for me to see your boobs, but not your pu…"

"Don't be so crass. And you didn't see my breasts, I had my bra on."

"I just want to know where we stand. And this time you'll have your panties on, I'm not actually going to see anything good."

"Ugh." She rolled her eyes, "You're disgusting, you know that."

He kissed her quickly, "I just want to know how hard I have to punch Karofsky."

"Noah." She admonished.

"Rachel. This is the second time in as many days that he's put bruises on you. I would have left it alone after yesterday, considering you broke his nose and all, but not this time. And I'm not leaving until you show me."

"Fine." She consented, raising her eyebrows when he didn't move. "I thought you were going to do it, since you made such an ordeal about taking my shirt off yesterday."

He grinned down at her. "Since you asked." He slipped his arms around her waist, finding the zipper.

"I didn't ask, I was merely commenting on your behavior." He grinned, kissed her again, and had the rest of her words dying in her throat as he unzipped her skirt, pushed it to the ground. Holy fuck, her legs really do go on forever.

He glanced down at her, took in the black, boyshort, panties with gold musical notes on the left hip. "You are full of fucking surprises." He muttered dropping to his knees in front of her.

"Um." Was all she could manage. The image of him on his knees in front of her was going to stay burned in her brain for a long time, possibly forever.

"Where?" He pushed her shirt up slightly, pressed a light kiss above her belly button, felt the muscles in her stomach tighten. She brushed her hand along his Mohawk before rubbing the sore spot on her hip. He used his hands to turn her slightly, pulled her panties down a bit so he could see the bruise. "Jesus Christ." He muttered seeing the angry purple welt on her hip. He placed a light kiss to the bruise before tugging her panties back into place.

"Has he done this to you before?" He asked standing again.

"What?"

He looked at her, her cheeks were pink, she was breathing shallowly out of her mouth, and her eyes were glassy. "Shit." He tangled his hands in her hair, hauled her against him, and plundered her mouth.

Her fingers were tracing his abs as he backed her against the wall. She let out a squeak as he pulled her pink sweater over her head, but surprised him by tugging at his shirt until he pulled it over his head. "God, Noah, please." She panted as he kissed his way from her mouth to her chest. The sight of her black lace covered breasts, caused him to harden painfully.

He'd just taken one lace covered nipple into his mouth, she let out a sound he didn't think he'd ever forget, when the phone rang. They jumped apart panting. Rachel scrambled to the phone, fought to even her breathing as she glanced down at the caller id readout. "Hi, daddy." Puck smirked, she was still totally breathless.

"No, nothing's wrong." She closed her eyes, took a deep breath. "I just walked in, I had to run to get the phone in time."

"Okay. What time?" She let out another breath, "Alright, I'll see you then, I love you too."

"Oh god." She muttered tossing the phone on her bed. "My dad almost caught us having sex."

"That wasn't sex."

"It was getting there."

He stared at her again, black bra and panties and pink knee socks. He was never going to be able to see a pair of knee socks without getting turned on again. "Fuck me." She sputtered as he tossed his shirt at her. "Put that on." She looked down at herself; she'd forgotten how little clothing she had on, and tugged the shirt over her head.

"Fucking hell, that's not any better." He muttered turning into her bathroom.

She narrowed her eyes and looked down. Okay, I do look ridiculous, with the knee socks and his shirt almost falling to my knees. She peeled the socks off before following him into the bathroom; he had the water in her tub running. "Noah?"

"Okay, so here was the second part of the plan, I was going to get you home and have you take a bath, then maybe hang out for a while, that parts a little sketchy." She blinked at him. "But now I'll get this going for you, then I have to go."

"Go?"

"Rach, baby," he found her hips with his hands again, "if I stay we're going to do something that you're not ready for."

She gnawed on her bottom lip, he groaned, "I want to be."

"I know. But when I'm inside you, you're going to be sure."

She looked up at him, "When you touch me I can't think about anything else."

"Fuck, are you trying to kill me?" She grinned at him. "Come on, let's get you into the bath." He muttered turning off the running water.

Not quite sure where the bravado she was feeling was coming from she slowly lifted his shirt up her body and over her head. He gaped at her, but was incapable of forming coherent thoughts. "I thought you wanted me in the bath? Don't you, Noah?"

"It's really to fucking bad that I'm a Jew."

"What?" She replied absolutely confused.

"'Cause I should be a saint for what I'm about to do." He pulled her to him, kissing her roughly. "Not, that. That was 'cause you're fucking hot. This." He muttered turning to walk out the door.

"Noah!" Rachel called following him, clad in a thigh length pink robe with large white polka dots.

He turned to look at her, raised an eyebrow, "Really?"

"Shut up. It's soft. And pretty." She replied. "Noah." She said again, suddenly serious.

"Yeah?"

"Please don't do anything to Karofsky."

"Rach, he left marks on you."

"I'm aware of that, but I don't want you to get into trouble."

"Are you questioning my badassness?"

She laughed softly, "Absolutely not, which is why I don't want you to go after him."

"How about this, I wont leave a mark on him."

"Noah."

"It's a compromise, Rach, 'cause I really want to beat the shit out of him right now."

"I'm not going to condone violence."

"Says the girl that already broke his nose."

"That was spur of the moment, I didn't go after him trying to break his nose."

"No marks, it's the best I can do." He said. "Now go get in your bath before it gets cold." He continued swatting her on the ass.

The next morning Rachel had to fight a grin the entire way to school. "Rachel, sweetie, you're in a really good mood this morning."

Rachel shrugged, "I'm just happy."

"I'm glad to hear that sweetie. Do you have glee practice today?"

"No, but I'm staying for geometry extra help."

"Alright, call dad when you get home. I have a surgery scheduled for 4:30, but it's complicated, so I may be home late."

"Okay. Bye, dad, I love you."

"Love you too sweetheart."

She'd barely stepped out of the car when she heard her name being called. Turning she saw Quinn waving to her, smiling she walked over to Quinn, "Rachel, I'm glad I found you."

"You are?" Though they seemed to have to come to a truce the day before Rachel was still a bit surprised.

"Brittany told me what happened. Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine."

"Karofsky is such an asshole. How did Puck take it?"

"He really is. Noah didn't take it well at all. I'm actually a little worried about what he might do."

"Well whatever it is I'm sure that he deserves it." Rachel made a noncommittal noise as she opened her locker, pulled out her books for history. "I'll see you later."

Rachel shut her locker, "Quinn?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"Sure." Quinn smiled, then flinched.

"What?"

"The baby's kicking. Sometimes it catches me by surprise." Rachel looked at her belly. "You wanna feel?"

"Um…" But without giving Rachel a chance to answer Quinn pulled her hand to her stomach. It took a moment, but Rachel felt the next kick. "Wow, that's amazing."

"Yeah, Brittany and I have been putting glasses and bowls on there so we can see it move." Quinn replied with a laugh. "So, I'll see you in Spanish?"

"Yeah, okay."

Rachel made her way to history, surprised and a little concerned that she hadn't seen Noah that morning.

She sat down in her usual seat in history, pulled out her homework from the night before and glanced out the window while she waited for the rest of the students and the teacher to filter in. "Hey."

She turned her head, shocked, to see Matt sitting next to her grinning. "The usual response is 'hey'"

"Oh, sorry, good morning. You caught me off guard."

"I do that, I'm sneaky, like a ninja."

She laughed softly, "What is it with boy's obsessions with ninjas?"

He stared at her in disbelief, "Seriously? Ninjas are awesome. They could kill you and you'd never even know."

"That's more than a little bit frightening."

"Rutherford, what the fuck are you doing, you been dropped on your head recently?" A boy in a letterman jacket called from the other side of the room.

"Nah, just sitting with Rachel today."

"Why?"

"'Cause I want to." Matt replied flipping the boy off moments before the teacher walked into the room.

"You know, you don't have to sit next to me. You made your point." Rachel whispered as the bell rang.

He shrugged in reply. "I want to."

"Okay." She replied smiling to herself.

Walking out of class when it was over Rachel spotted Karofsky walking towards her from the other end of the hall and stiffened noticeably. "You okay?" Matt asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Rachel replied automatically, it was a little scary to find how easily she fell back into the response.

"He's a douche bag." Matt said seeing Karofsky as well.

"You can say that again." She responded, watching as Karofsky spotted her, inexplicably palled and turned in the other direction.

"He's a douche bag." Matt said again. Rachel only rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Who's a douche bag?" Mike asked walking over. "Hey, Rachel."

Rachel blinked looking between them, "Hey."

"Karofsky." Matt replied.

"Well, yeah, everyone knows that." Mike looked down at Rachel, "What?"

"You're both talking to me, in front of everyone."

"You made a good point yesterday." Mike replied. "Also, sorry for having been an ass to you."

"Yeah, me too." Matt added, "You're pretty cool. Well I've got to get to bio, see you guys later."

"You've got Spanish next, right?"

"Yeah, why do you know that?"

"I have Italian it the room next to Shue's. Come on we better be going or we'll be late." She could feel the stares as the walked down the hall. "See you Rachel." He said slipping into his class.

Quinn and Brittany were waiting outside Spanish for her. "Hi, Rachel!"

"Hi, Brittany."

"We were waiting for you."

"Thanks." Rachel replied unsurely as the three girls walked into the class.

"How're you feeling?"

"Better."

"That's good."

"Quinn, what is going on?" Rachel asked suspiciously as they all sat down.

"Why do people keep popping up to take me to class all of a sudden?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You and Brittany, for example. Why were you waiting outside class for me?"

"Honestly, Shue said he was going to break us up into groups for some sort of project. We wanted to know if you wanted to be partners."

"Really?"

"Bien todos, se establecen." Mr. Shuester said from the front of the room. Rachel, Quinn, and several other students turned to the front of the room, but as he was met with mostly blank stares he sighed and tried again in English. "Alright, settle down."

"Rachel, can I see you a moment." Mr. Shuester said as the bell rang.

"Yes, Mr. Shue?" She wanted to see if she could find Noah, as she hadn't seen all morning.

"Rachel, I want to apologize for what you overheard." He's sorry that I heard it, but not that he said it. "You were right when you said I wasn't being fair to you. I just don't want the other kids to slack off, if I give you every solo, they're not going to try."

"You've told me this before, Mr. Shue. And I get where you're coming from, I do. It doesn't change the fact that when it comes down to it you don't like me and you let it color your judgment as to who should be getting solos in glee. I don't mean to sound conceited, but I'm the best one in there, I practice for hours more than anyone else, and you don't utilize that. As much as you say you want to beat Vocal Adrenaline I can't help feeling like you're trying to punish me."

"Rachel, that's not true and you know that."

She shrugged, "It feels that way. I stopped getting anything out of glee months ago, and it stopped being fun sometime before that."

"Are you quitting on me again?"

"No. That wouldn't be fair to anyone, not this close to Regionals. But I'm not going to be joining again next year if things don't change."

"I can't give you every solo, Rachel."

"I don't want every solo, Mr. Shue. I just want to be recognized once in while."

"You know how good your are, everyone knows how good you are."

"A 'good job' once in a while would be nice." Rachel shook her head sadly, "I have to go, I'm going to be late to class."

She saw Karofsky twice more before making it to her math class, both times he had turned and practically sprinted in the other direction. "Noah." She said as he sat down next to her. "Where have you been all day?"

He smirked in response, "Why, you miss me?"

"I was worried, Karofsky's been acting strange all day, I thought you'd been expelled."

"Dial it down, I'm fine." He said turning to her. "Has he come anywhere near you?"

"No, in fact any time he sees me in the hall he looks like he's about to vomit and turns the other way. What did you do to him?"

"There're no marks. I promised." He grinned wickedly, remembering.

He'd gone into school early, headed straight to the locker room. Karofsky had been there, as expected, the hockey coach usually had morning practices.

"Karofsky." He called.

"What do you want, Puckerman?"

"You're going to stay the fuck away from Rachel Berry."

"Why, don't like sharing? She's hot and I bet she gives amazing head."

Puck's fist made contact, nosily, with the locker, less than an inch from Karofsky's head. His other hand reached down, gripped Karofsky's dick as hard as he could and twisted. Karofsky gaped like a fish.

"You're going to stay the fuck away from her. You're not going to touch her, not going to look at her, not going to talk to her, not going to talk about her. Understand?"

Karofsky made a couple of choked noises. "I didn't hear you." Puck twisted harder, beads of sweat broke out across Karofsky's forehead.

"Okay." He managed.

"Good." Puck patted his face roughly. "And remember, the only reason I didn't cut off your dick with a rusty knife, then shove it down your throat is because she asked. If I find out that you've so much as glanced in her direction, that's what I'm going to do to you. Got it?"

"Yeah."

"Good, I'm glad we had this chat."

"Noah what did you do?"

"It's nothing for you to worry about, but if he does anything let me know, okay?"

She eyed him warily, but agreed. "You know," she whispered half way through the class, "since you've been helping me, I really think I'm understanding this more the first time."

"That's what I'm here for." He was leering at her, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out what was sexual about the comment.

The both grinned when the final bell rang, "So, what are we doing now?" He asked throwing an arm over her shoulder.

She pressed her face into his side for a moment, grinning, "Well, since we have a geometry test on Friday I thought we could go over that. Then there's the bio test tomorrow, do you think you're ready?"

"Rach," she looked up at him, ignoring the stares of the other people in the hallway, "I'm always ready."

She snickered, pushed him slightly, "You're repulsive."

"Yeah," he grinned as they stopped by her locker, "but you love it."

"I don't know what it says about me that I kind of do."

"That's because you're just as depraved as I am." She gawked at him. "What?"

"You just called yourself depraved."

"Yeah, I picked it up from you and your ridiculous vocabulary." She looked proud. "Also, I jacked your word-a-day calendar last night."

"You," she tilted her head in confusion, "why would you steal my calendar?"

"I figured that I was going to keep up with what you're saying that I should know what some of the words mean, since half the time you're like a walking dictionary. Besides I figured you had all the words memorized anyway."

"I do. That's very sweet, Noah. An expanded vocabulary will help you in English as well. I don't imagine Ms. Olsen likes having your favorite four letter words integrated into our papers."

He laughed, "Like I would be stupid enough to put 'fuck' in an essay."

"But imagine if you did."

"I like the way your mind works." He leaned down, kissed her softly. She let out a surprised squeak. "What?" He asked raising an eyebrow.

"We're at school."

He looked around, "No shit. You have something against me kissing you while we're in school?"

"No." he kissed her again for good measure, this time she sighed. "I just figured you didn't want to kiss me while we're in school."

"I'm not embarrassed to be with you, Rach. If I'm going to kiss you at home, I'm gonna kiss you here."

"Ugh, your conversation is making me nauseous." They both turned to see Coach Sylvester hanging up flyers. "Get out of my presence before I vomit all over your shoes."

They looked at each other and scurried down the hall, stopping near the library to read one of the flyers. "Why would she be hanging up flyers for a carnival?" Rachel asked after skimming the paper over.

"Maybe her parents work there, would make sense. Those people are freaks."

"That's not very nice, Noah."

"Come on, have you seen them?"

She shook her head, "I've never been."

"You've never been to a carnival?"

"No."

"Didn't your dads take you when you were little?"

"No, they made sure that my entertainment had some sort of educational value, if it didn't have to do with dance or music."

"Huh." Was all he could manage, but he was already thinking of ways that he could get her there as they were scheduled to leave before her grounding was up.

"Noah," Rachel called impatiently from just inside the library doors, "you coming?"

He grinned lecherously, "At every available opportunity."

"Gross." She muttered pulling him in.