Note From The Author—Okay, so the fall finale has created an interesting situation for me. I was hoping to stay true to cannon up to the episode Sectionals, but obviously since Rachel knew about baby Puckerman in this story and didn't in the show that isn't going to happen. So what I'm going to do is sort of create an amalgam of that world and this and then move forward. In this story, everything is the same, but Finn found out when he heard Mercedes talking to the others. Everything other than that detail should be pretty much the same, but this is essentially AU going forward since we won't actually know what's going to happen until April thanks to bloody American Idol. Hopefully this all works but let me know either way.

Life had gotten wild just before Sectionals. As if losing Mr. Schue after he found out his wife was a lying crazy person hadn't been enough, Mercedes' party line call had clued Finn into the fact that Quinn's baby wasn't his, and Puck was lucky that he had come out of the confrontation in one piece. Finn may have come back to Glee at sectionals, but he was still royally pissed after everything that had gone down. Not even the camaraderie that had come with winning the title together had patched things up between him and Quinn and Puck.

Soon after the competition it had been time for winter break, and though he really didn't want to, Puck left things alone with Finn for the time being. It was Rachel's suggestion that had convinced him, particularly since it had come during a conversation that constituted the first Glee clubber other than Quinn speaking to him since the baby drama went down. He cooled his heels through Hanukkah, saw Rachel once or twice when he needed to talk about the baby, and waited until the day before they were supposed to go back to school to try and talk to Finn.

All that conversation got him was a black eye, a split lip, and what felt like three or four bruised ribs. It also landed him on a chair in Rachel Berry's kitchen with a bag of peas pressed to his eye like he was living in an episode of I Love Freaking Lucy.

"Noah I thought you were going to wait to talk to him."

"It's been like a month, Berry! How long am I supposed to wait?"

She gave him that withering look that only ex-girlfriends and his mother seemed to be able to pull off. "Considering that you and the girl he's in love with got drunk and slept with each other, resulting in a baby that said girlfriend has been trying to pass off as his, I'd say it's going to take a while."

Puck frowned. "Why can't you just say a while and leave it at that?" He winced as she applied something that stung like a bitch to his lip. "And why are you on my side in this anyway?"

Rachel shook her head. "I'm not on anyone's side Noah, not really," she told him quietly, dabbing at his lip. "I feel for all of you. I understand that Quinn is terrified and only wanted to keep Finn, and I get that you want to be involved in your daughter's life. But I also understand that Finn feels hurt and betrayed right now. There's no right or wrong in this situation."

"So it was right for Finn to beat the crap out of me for a second time?" he cried, waving his bag of peas in the air.

She only sighed, taking his hand in hers to guide the frozen vegetables back to his swollen eye. "Violence is never the answer, but put yourself in his position, Noah."

He thought about it for a second, imagined finding out the girl he loved had slept with someone else and gotten pregnant and nodded grudgingly. "Okay, so maybe I get it."

For a moment they were both silent, but finally Rachel worked up the courage to ask the question that had been rolling around in her head since he had turned up on her doorstep. "Why did you come here today?"

Puck had been asking himself the same question, and he knew he had the option of bull shitting her or just laying it out for her. Considering that she was currently tending to his wounds and making them hot chocolate he chose the latter. With a sigh, he set the peas aside and looked up at her, catching her eyes so she could see that he was being straight with her. "You're pretty much my only friend, Berry. Everyone's pretty pissed over this thing with me and Quinn because they all love Finn so much, and they don't know what to do with me I guess. You were here before Babygate broke and you've cared about me ever since we went out; even though I was a complete ass when you broke it off. Where else would I go?"

"I can respect that." She turned towards the stove for the dual purposes of removing the hot milk and wiping away the tears he had brought to her eyes. All her crying would do was make him uncomfortable and more likely to bolt. After pouring the milk into the chocolate she set his mug in front of him and bent to kiss his forehead. "You're not a bad guy, Noah, even if you want people to think you are."

"Why do you do that?" he asked suddenly. "The forehead thing?"

Rachel shrugged. "I don't know. I guess because my daddy always did it when I was little to make me feel better." She smiled at him just a bit sadly. "I always figured it would make everyone else feel better too, but I can stop if you want."

Later it would occur to him that his gut twisted a bit at the thought, and that he was awfully quick to answer her. "No..! I mean, you don't have to," he told her, trying to play it off.

The grin she shot him made it perfectly clear that she didn't believe for a second that he felt as casually as he was trying to play it, but she was decent enough not to mention it and deal a deeper blow to his aching pride. So with chocolate in hand she launched into a discussion of songs for Regionals that he was sure would leave his ears bleeding.

The next morning school went about like it always did for a Glee kid on the lower end of the chain. There were the usual insults tossed out here and there but this time there were some congratulations too from those who had just heard about their win at Sectionals who actually gave a crap. Rachel interacted with the rest of the Glee club as normal, though she noticed that Noah was entirely right about the way the others were treating him. Some seemed a bit pissed, but for the most part things were just awkward. Nobody knew what to do with the badass who'd been revealed as the baby daddy.

Their first Glee practice back from the break went as well as could be expected when Finn still wouldn't go anywhere near Puck and Quinn. Mr. Schue could sense the back to school blahs and cut the session relatively short, letting them out after only forty five minutes. Finn bolted for the door the moment their advisor closed his mouth and Rachel wasn't surprised to hear a soft sob from Quinn.

She knew that she was risking bodily harm, but she decided it was probably worth the risk and moved quietly out of her chair to the one next to Quinn. Santana and Brit had vacated the premises, not sure how to deal with pregnancy hormones on a teenager, so she was sitting alone with a hand protectively on her burgeoning belly and tears in her eyes.

"Hey Quinn," she said softly.

The blonde looked over at her former rival. "What exactly do you want, Berry?"

Rachel shrugged. "You looked sad, and I wanted to see if there's anything I could do."

"What could you possibly do to make this better?" she spat out.

"Well, you haven't called me Man Hands in a while; that always seems to make you feel better."

Quinn let out a surprised laugh despite herself. "I don't think so, but thanks for offering." She shook her head. "I really don't get it. You've always been into Finn. Why are you being so nice to me and Puck instead of going after him?"

She took a moment to smooth her skirt out and gather her thoughts. "Don't think it didn't occur to me to run to him the second all of this happened and try to be a shoulder to cry on." As the girls' eyes met she could see the surprise in the former Cheerio's at the admission. "But the bottom line is that Finn doesn't need me throwing myself at him. He's got enough on his plate right now, enough to think about. If he and I are meant to get together we will, but I'm not going to push it. It wouldn't be right."

Now Quinn just looked positively bowled over. "You're a better person than me, then. I'd be all over it the second he was free." Her voice caught a little bit at the last word, but she pushed forward. "But you kind of ignored part of my question. I've never been anything but a complete beast to you, so why do you care?"

"Because Noah cares," Rachel answered without hesitation. "It's taking me a lot, but I'm finally convincing him that I really do care about him. I see him as a friend and that's his baby in there. Plus, I don't hate you, Quinn. Not anymore."

She nodded. "Well I'm not saying we're best buddies or anything, Man Hands." She tempered the insult with a joking tone that actually made them both smile. "But it's nice to have someone I know is really on my side."

Rachel picked up her bag and stood with a kind smile. "Anytime."

She was headed out of the room when Puck grabbed her around the waist and lifted her off her feet. "Noah, what on earth…?" It took her a moment to realize that he was actually hugging her. Even during their brief relationship he had never held her like this, so it was a change. Hesitantly, she wrapped her own arms around him to return the embrace. "Noah, as nice as this is I'd really like my feet on the ground."

He seemed to come back to himself at his words and he dropped her to her feet almost jarringly. "Sorry," he said, trying to hide the fact that he was actually blushing over having literally swept her off her feet, and in public no less.

Flustered hands brushed over her mussed hair to smooth it back into place and she sighed. "Not exactly what I had in mind but it works I suppose. What exactly was that about?" she questioned.

Those probing brown eyes of hers were staring right into his and he knew there was no way he was going to be able to play this one off. "Just…" He trailed off, rubbing a hand over his half shaved head. "Thanks, for being so nice to Quinn."

"No problem," she said with a note of wonder still audible in her voice. "I've got a voice lesson so I've got to go," she told him, pointing down the hall.

"Oh yeah, go ahead. I'll, uh, see you tomorrow."

With a nod she made her way down the hall, and when she was well out of his sight he let his head fall with a dull thud into the nearest locker. What the hell had he gotten himself into with this girl?