Puck hated funerals. He didn't understand why someone who hunted dead things for a living would want to subject themselves to this lame ritual, especially since the only thing Puck could focus on was making sure that the person in the casket was cremated. Fully.

It had nothing to do with his father's funeral, where he had watched his mother fall apart and Bekah stick her tiny fist into her mouth, eyes wide at all the strange people around them.

Watching Rachel cling to some blonde guy with a lame Bieber cut made the list though. The past few days had alternated with him being incredibly awkward and then stupendously frustrated with Berry. A few days later and Puck still wasn't sure why Abigail Puckerman had agreed to this fucking ridiculous charade.

Who the fuck wants to become a hunter?

Dean shifted beside him restlessly again and Puck heard the faint grunt the older Winchester emitted when Sam jabbed his elbow into his brother's side. Abigail turned a stern glare on the two, and Puck wanted to laugh when Dean ducked his head sheepishly. Giving the stocky man a considering look, Puck flicked his gaze back over to Santana, who stood regal in her modest black dress and stiletto heels. Ever since their short hiatus to Omaha to consult with Father Schuester, things between the two had been a bit…off. Puck wasn't quite sure how else to describe it. Then again, he couldn't really put a name to how things were between Rachel and him.

Someone coughed in the mausoleum and Puck heard Bekah chastise Finn with a whispered curse. The sound echoed along the marble floor, Father Schuester's murmured prayers barely reaching Puck's ears. The small, gold urn with Blaine's picture beside it stood in front of the priest, a reminder that there wasn't a body to cremate. To gain some kind of closure. Puck cast his gaze over the people who had showed up, wondered if Rachel knew everyone there. The last head count he did had given him a number just under a hundred.

Someone jostled his arm and Puck followed behind his mother to lay a rose at Blaine's urn, Rachel giving him a small smile when he met her gaze. Puck couldn't help but smile back, scowling when his sister arched her eyebrow. So what if he wanted to shake some sense into Rachel? He wasn't going to act like a dick on her brother's funeral. That shit was just cold.

One of Rachel's friends, Mercedes, begun singing Amazing Grace and Puck watched as Rachel gripped Bieber's hand tighter, her lips quivering as two other friends held Blaine's urn on either side and gently slid it into the empty cubby hole. They don't wait around for the hole to get sealed up and Puck noticed the way Rachel didn't let go of Bieber's hand until they were at the auditorium. Santana told everyone that there was food and to be back in five minutes before gripping Rachel's arm and hauling her off into a corner.

'What?' Puck asked when his mother patted his arm.

'You can go talk to her, you know. I think she'd like that.'

Puck snorted. 'Yesterday she practically said she'd cut my balls off if I disparaged her one more time. Not my fault she can't shoot for salt.'

'It's good that you distracted her. These past few days haven't been kind on Rachel,' Abigail replied, not even bothering to correct his profanity.

'I didn't distract her. I was doing what you made me do,' Puck mumbled, grabbing a few pigs in a blanket and stacking it onto his paper plate.

'I wouldn't have agreed to this if I didn't think she was capable,' Abigail snapped at him, forcibly placing a few sticks of raw carrot onto his plate. Puck frowned. 'She needs-'

'Her needing something doesn't make it right Ma,' Puck retorted, trying to push the vegetables onto Finn's plate while he was talking to Bekah. His mother thwarted his attempts, gave a small smile when she saw Beiber drag a few mikes onto the stage.

'Her father died in a house fire,' Abigail told him tightly and Puck felt the grip on his plate slacken. 'Now hurry so we can get good seats.'

'Dude, are they putting on a concert?' Dean nudged his shoulder. Puck shrugged, still digesting what Abigail had said.

'You mean you guys haven't heard them sing?' Rachel's friend Matt remarked, settling himself in the row behind them. The dancer from New York nodded at Mike Chang, who Rachel had briefly mentioned ran a dance studio alongside the other man.

'Sing?' Dean said slowly. Both men flashed them a knowing smirk before Bieber's voice had them all turning to face the stage. There were seven of them on the wooden platform, Rachel in the middle sandwiched between Santana and a slight, lean man who was smoothing his hair into place.

'Hey everyone. Rachel just wanted to say a few words.'

Rachel flashed Bieber a tight smile and Santana squeezed her shoulder as she grasped the mike.

'Thank you all for coming,' Rachel started and it wasn't hard to discern the subtle quiver in her tone. 'When Blaine and I were growing up, my fathers told us we could be anything we wanted to be. I wanted my name in lights, to be recognized for my immeasurable talent.'

A few people chuckled in the audience.

'But Blaine showed me that music, something we both shared and loved, wasn't a pathway to fame and fortune. He showed me that songs were another form of expressing who we were, that it was a language you could speak anywhere and be understood. Blaine always said music was what life sounded like. So in memory of my brother, I wanted to share a song that brought the William McKinley High Glee Club together. These people became our family through the years; one Blaine and I never thought we were looking for. I guess you could say this song became our anthem, and I think, wherever he is, Blaine would think it a fitting tribute for everything he's done for me. For us,' Rachel finished and Puck thought her hand shook slightly as she lowered it from her mouth. The seven of them arranged themselves in a single line, heads held high as the man in the wheelchair started them off.

The first verse had him nodding in recognition but then Rachel opened her mouth and everything else fell away.

Just a city boy
Born and raised in South Detroit
He took the midnight train goin' anywhere

Dean felt the same when Santana belted out her words.

A singer in a smokey room
The smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on

'Oh Noah. Listen to her,' Abigail breathed softly, clasping her hands.

Puck saw the music fill Rachel, wash away the lethargy that had lingered over her body since Blaine had died. He had never seen someone connect with the words of a song so intimately, so thoroughly. Every word Rachel sang seemed to be infused with everything she had. Something glinted off her cheek and Puck wondered if she knew she was crying, thought she must not care if she looked as free as she felt.

'Holy shit. Did you just hear that?' Dean hissed.

'Shhh!' Bekah hushed him, eyes riveted on the stage. A strange, palpable hush fell over the guests as they watched the seven people up on stage transport themselves to a time and place where everything had been good. Where there wasn't death and darkness stalking their doorstep. Where Rachel's brother and fathers were both somewhere in the crowd cheering her on.

Her father died in a house fire.

What about the other one? Did he perish trying to save Rachel, his...whatever gay dudes called their boyfriends who they had kids with? Was gay marriage even legal in Ohio? Yeah, Puck recognized the name of the local high school he had grown up with before his mother had carted them off to Nebraska a few years after Matthew's funeral.

Shit she was just within touching distance.

The thought struck Puck, made him scratch his temple as Mercedes killed the high note at the end. People stood up on their feet, hollering, cheering, clapping their hands. Rachel beamed through her tears, laughing wetly at the adulation. Abigail pinched his shoulder when he didn't stand and Puck rose slowly, smacked his palms together a few times.

Seeing Rachel on stage, smile stretched wide with her tear-stained face, Puck thought Blaine might be watching after his sister after all.

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Will be posting Outtakes focusing on Dean/Santana (this couple needs a shipper name STAT! Suggestions?) within the week, so we can all know what went down in Omaha.