Disclaimer : I do not own Glee or any of the characters..I would very much like to, but I don't.

This story is just something that I would really like to happen. I've been a Puckleberry shipper for some time now.

The stuff in italics are flashbacks

She wasn't sure what had led to this. What had brought them here, together. The man standing before her his arm braced against the door, his hazel eyes begging her not to close it, looked like a kicked dog. She didn't even get a moment to speak before he reached for her and crashed his lips down upon hers. Her mind raced as he kissed her, memories of all their shared time flooding back in a barrage of color and emotion.

He was gone. The man she loved, the one she had been planning to be with forever was dead. Taken too soon for reasons beyond anyones control. She had come back here hoping to find peace with it, to lay him to rest in song and then to never have to feel this empty pain again. As more and more tears fell she blinked them away, hardly registering she was no longer alone in the hall. She felt him watching her before she heard him there beside her, his finger lifting her chin, her puffy eyes glancing up at him seeing a similar pain in his. She threw herself against him, her arms wrapping around his body and her head buried against his chest, as he stroked her long brunette hair and just let her cry.

As the tears gave way she chanced another look at him from under her lashes. He looked distraught, but for what she couldn't be sure.

"Noah?" She asked softly, a hiccup following his name, the name only she, his mother and his little sister were allowed to speak.

"I'm here Rach." He replied, his gaze finding hers.

"He's really gone... isn't he..." She said as though finally realizing this horrible statement was indeed true.

"He is. But he will always be with us in some way."

She looked at him in what could be considered awe and untangled herself slightly from his arms. Confusion showing in her face, at his all too put together insight into the fact his best friend had died.

"You don't sound like yourself." She said quietly. "You sound like you used to when we first met as children."

He looked down at the small girl and shrugged. No real answer coming since he didn't quite know himself. Instead he changed the subject. "Lets go get coffee at the Lima Bean, Ok?"

He posed it as a question but he knew she would say yes, she always did when it came to him. He watched as she attempted to dry her eyes on the sleeve of her coat and reached for her hand when she seemed as though she was ready to leave. With one last glance at the memorial for their mutual friend, they left the hall together."

His lips pulling away from hers brought Rachel back to reality. The man before her looked as though he was afraid she would push him away, afraid she would reject him, and she moved away from him only to open the door to her small apartment and step aside.

"Please come in Noah."

Noah Puckerman didn't need to be asked twice he entered the room, taking in his surroundings quickly before his eyes fell back unto Rachel. Moving towards her, ready to gather her back into his arms and continue where he had left off, he stopped. She looked hurt, confused, sad, and all together lost. She didn't look like herself, she didn't look like his star. He took a step back choosing to move past her and take a seat on her couch, patting the soft furniture beside him and watching for her reaction. Every inch of his body screamed at him to grab her and show her how much he needed her, and he had to stiffle a chuckle as he remembered the first time he had felt that way.

They had been spending a lot of time together since that day in the hall. Him taking a train to New York and staying on the couch of her shared apartment any chance he got. More then once she had told him he'd might as well move in, since he spent so much time there, and today was no different. He reclined into her sofa, mindlessly flipping through channels on the small television in front of him, trying to find something to pass the time until she got back from work. He had considered going to see her at Spotlight, the ridiculous diner she worked at, claiming that is was her penance she had to pay if she ever wanted to be on Broadway, but her manager had been more then firm about him not returning after he almost maimed a customer for slapping her ass the last time. The sound of keys in the door brought him out of his thoughts and he jumped up and hid behind the couch, eyes peering around the corner as he watched her enter the room.

The tiny brunette opened the door, chatting incessantly at the Latina girl who had become her best girlfriend over the last year. The taller girl looked exasperated as she said something about needing to change out of the silly uniform and meet up with her girlfriend, causing Rachel to nod and go silent. Santana gave the smaller girl a tight squeeze before disappearing into one of the makeshift rooms in the loft, clearly going about with getting out of her work attire. Taking the chance of them being alone Noah waited for Rachel to enter the kitchen and stick her head into the fridge before coming up behind her and grabbing her playfully around the waist.

The shriek the tiny diva let out in terror, was enough to make Santana come running from the bedroom half dressed and Puck to fall to the floor in a fit of laughter. As recognition crossed the brunettes face, anger quickly overtook the happiness she had in seeing the man who was her very best friend.

"NOAH PUCKERMAN! I am going to get you for that!" Rachel fumed, her tiny form shaking. "That wasn't even the least bit humorous, I thought I was being attacked." She said her voice softening to a whisper, hurt shining in her beautiful brown eyes.

"Sorry Rach. I just wanted to surprise you, not to upset you" He said standing up and reaching for her, pulling her into a tight embrace. "Hows about I buy you a nice dinner tonight at your favorite vegan place to make up for it?" He asked her clearly trying to smooth things over.

She nodded softly and returned his hug. "Thats a start Puckerman." She said with a hint of teasing to her voice.

He nodded solemnly in response, accepting that he was going to have to do more then buy her a nice meal to make up for that trick. "Anything you want my hot little Jewish American Princess"

She quickly let him go and rushed off to change. Leaving him standing in the small kitchen with a less then pleased Latina. "What the hell Puckerman." Santana scoffed at him, distest for his upsetting the other girl evident in her voice. "She was just saying how much she missed you and then you pull that shit?"

Puck looked at her annoyance flitting across his features before he gathered himself and shrugged in his signature manner. "Relax Satan. I'm fixing it." He muttered his response really not caring what the girl he had once dated thought of him.

Just as Santana was about to reply, the small brunette appeared again. Her tiny red uniform having been discarded in her room, she now wore a navy dress that was fitted in the top and flowed outward into a skirt that landed about mid thigh. She had let her hair down so it now fell freely over her shoulders and she had applied just the tiniest bit of makeup and completed the look with some black stilettos. She looked a true New Yorker in every sense of the word, and Puck intook a sharp breath as he attempted to keep his cool.

"How do I look" Rachel questioned, as so many girls before her had. And he could do nothing but blink before replying with one simple word.

"Beautiful"