Dude, summer is boring. Just saying.

Anywho, this one is set several hours after Babygate in "Sectionals."

Song guide
Puck

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee. I don't own this song either, which is Please Please Please by The Smiths.

Rachel walked aimlessly through the empty halls of McKinley High School. There was something cathartic about the silence, not only surrounding her, but in her head, as well. For once her head was completely clear of any sort of thought whatsoever; there was only the sound of her breathing. Rachel couldn't remember the last time she let herself not think.

Her feet carried her anywhere and everywhere, just not to the parking lot. She couldn't go home just yet. She couldn't leave the bubble of tension that had settled over the familiar walls of the school. She was sure that if she would step through those doors, the bubble would burst and the weight of what she'd done would fall onto her shoulders. Rachel wasn't ready for that just yet.

So she just kept wandering through the silent building, enjoying the echoes the sounds of her footsteps made. She didn't know what she was looking for until she'd found it. As Rachel was making her fifth lap around the school, she heard music drifting from the auditorium—a guitar, to be exact. Without fully realizing what was happening, Rachel felt her legs steer her towards the door of the auditorium. Through the crack in the doors, she heard a strong, deep voice join the guitar.

Good time for a change.
See the luck I've had
can make a good man
turn bad

So please please please
let me let me let me
let me get what I want
this time

The bottom dropped out of her stomach when she matched the voice to a face. Struggling to remember how to breathe, Rachel silently pushed open the auditorium doors and slipped inside. Despite the cool interior, her palms started to sweat.

Haven't had a dream
in a long time
See the life I've had
Can make a good man bad

For once in my life
let me get what I want
Lord knows it would be the first time
Lord knows it would be the first time

Noah Puckerman let the last notes of the song fade away before shoving his guitar roughly to the side. He sighed heavily, passing a hand over his face. He didn't notice Rachel as she slowly walked forward out of the darkness.

She saw him nearly jump out of his skin as she approached. His face twisted into something like contempt, then just as quickly faded into something she couldn't identify. He sighed again as he looked at her, and his shoulders slumped in defeat. She remembered the look they shared as they passed each other earlier, and the white hot shame that burned through her entire body as his eyes bored into hers. Something like understanding passed between them before she had hurried away.

"I—" Rachel began, only to find her speech impaired the lump in her throat. It was then she realized that she was crying.

"I know, Berry," was all he said, but there was something so tender in his voice that Rachel thrust herself into his arms and buried her head in his chest. Puck's arms wrapped around her immediately.

"I'm so—so—sorry, Noah," she choked out. "I-I never meant for any of this to happen. I didn't think—I-I just didn't think."

"I know, I know," he kept murmuring into her hair, occasionally kissing the top of her hair and rubbing her back. It was so wrong and unfair of her to make him comfort her when he had been the one who was hurt by her thoughtless actions. Rachel made herself step out of his embrace, but she couldn't make herself meet his eyes.

"I wanted him so much. I thought, 'Yes! Here's my shot! I'm going to win this time!' But that's never the way it works, is it? Everyone lost this time," she told him miserably.

"I know why you did it, Berry," he told her softly. "I know how you felt."

She moved to sit beside him on the stage. "But you didn't ruin everyone's lives. Not only did I break up Finn and Quinn, I've also ruined your chances of being with Quinn, as well as our chances of winning Sectionals. Everything's a mess because of me."

"I knocked up my best friend's girlfriend. I messed up everything from the get-go. This whole semester we've moving toward this blowout. You just set it off, Berry. You didn't set out to screw up anything," his voice was quiet, but he spoke with conviction. Rachel still couldn't let it go.

"But I knew what I was doing was wrong. I acted selfishly, like always. I don't deserve to be in Glee anymore, not after what I did." Rachel had never felt the sting of failure and self-disgust before, but now her body swelled with it.

Puck hopped off the stage to stand directly in front of her. She dipped her head so that a curtain of hair fell in front of her face. "Look at me, Berry," he said. When she ignored him, he stuck a finger under her chin and lifted it to his face. "I said look at me." Their eyes met, "This club needs you, Berry. Without you, we wouldn't be anywhere. You keep us together and remind us why we all need each other. You're the soul of Glee, and we can't have you abandoning us now. You got me, Berry?" he spoke forcefully and earnestly, and Rachel felt her head nod of its own accord.

She wiped at her eyes as he moved again to sit beside her onstage. They sat together for awhile, neither of them knowing exactly how long. The janitor came and went before Puck stood up, gave her a quick nod and a "See you on Saturday" before exiting.

Rachel watched him go with a heavy, but manageable, sadness. Her heart full, she made her way across the stage, out of the auditorium, and headed for the parking lot.