Rachel knew Noah well enough to know that talking about what had happened that night with Quinn would only embarrass him; so she simply let him hold on to her as long as he needed and then never brought it up again. Life went on, Puck and Quinn looked into adoptive parents and fought over what kind of people they wanted their little girl to go to. Quinn insisted on a family with a belief in God and good fashion sense and Puck wanted to make sure that his little girl was taken care of but that there was some measure of badassness in there somewhere. Rachel heard about it all and tried to keep her amused giggle to herself.

Of course, given the differences between Noah and her, Rachel was aware of the fact that most people wouldn't believe they were just friends. They regularly endured the crude suggestions of people's perception of their 'true' relationship, and she and the rest of their friends regularly had to restrain Puck from beating the crap out of people. Jacob saw the entire thing as blog fodder and regularly mused on what he called the "Puckleberry Situation". Not that it did anything to dissuade his perverted fascination with Rachel. As long as Noah wasn't in ear shot or sight he was still more than willing to come on to her.

If anything Jacob's advances seemed to be getting bolder, which meant that if he really did believe that Rachel and Puck were together he just had a death wish. Either way he kept it up, as evidenced by his actions in the hall one day.

Rachel felt the smack on her butt and whirled around to face Jacob with indignation written on her face. "Do…not….touch me!"

He put his hands up in mock fear. "Oh I'm scared. Come on Rachel, when are you going to dump Puckerman for me?"

She folded her arms across her chest and stared him down. "When they give Limp Biskit a Tony Award."

"Huh?"

There wasn't any time to explain as Kurt chose that moment to sidle up next to her. "Problem oh starlet of mine?"

"Not a one," Jacob answered with a lecherous grin in Rachel's direction.

The two singers' eyes met and a silent meeting of the minds clearly occurred. With his lip curled into a devious smile Kurt turned to face the perv. "So you mean I didn't see you smack Miss. Berry's rear end just then?" He ploughed on before the other boy could say anything else. "Do yourself a favor and back off, unless you want to deal with me."

"What are you going to do, beat me up?" he scoffed.

Kurt looked briefly down at his perfect outfit with a laugh. "Please, like I would actually risk destroying this amazingness on you." He stepped a bit closer. "No, what I will do is bring down the entire football team on you."

"Oh please."

"But wait, it gets better." Kurt's entire face lit up with his next words. "You have enough trouble with the girls in this school as it is, and the few who could stand you would never even entertain dating you if they found out about the tryst you had with my friend Jason at summer camp in the eighth grade."

Jacob's mouth fell open. "That never happened! And everyone knows I'm not gay."

He studied his nails briefly before looking up with an entirely disconcerting smirk on his face. "Oh but Jason is, and I can guarantee you that I can have several witnesses planted who will swear up and down that they found you making out one balmy summer night; and then you'll spend the rest of your high school career stuck at first base, my friend. Remember that I'm very charming, and a very good actor."

"You wouldn't!" he squeaked.

"He would," Rachel told him with a pleased grin. "And I'll back him up on."

"Or you can leave Rachel alone, not have to deal with Puck, and actually have the chance to discover if there really is a girl somewhere out there who'll put up with your creeper act. Your choice."

Standing there in the hall, Jacob found himself faced with a surprisingly formidable team, and he had no doubt that they would do exactly what they said, and he wouldn't near a girl until after he graduated, and maybe even longer. He surveyed the two of them, standing there united with arms crossed and hips throw out and decided that he was going to have to walk away. "Fine!" Unable to find any other words, he stalked away.

Rachel watched him go with hands over her mouth to stifle the full blown laugh that was dying to escape. Dropping her hands she turned to Kurt with a huge smile on her face. "Kurt, I think I love you."

He grinned. "You're not my type, but you're not so bad yourself."

"Really though, thank you for helping," she told him sincerely, looping her arm through his as they began to walk together. "I owe you."

"Well one day I'll probably find a way to cash in on this, but you're welcome."

She smiled over at him. "Well Noah will be happy to have him out of his hair as well, what little of it there is."

Kurt watched her as she spoke, noting the sparkle in her eye when she mentioned their surly fellow club member. "Why Rachel Berry do I detect a bit of attraction for tall dark and mohawked?"

It was work for her not to trip over her feet when he said it and they had to jerk to a halt as it was. "No! We're just friends, and I wouldn't want to jeopardize…" She looked over again to see him staring at her with one perfect eyebrow raised in doubt and crumbled. "Okay, okay, maybe I feel something other than friendship. Maybe."

"So we've established that you may like him. Is there any chance that he MAY like you?"

"I honestly don't know. It's all so complicated. I don't think about Finn as much anymore but I don't know if those feelings are gone, and Puck says he doesn't want Quinn but I don't know if he likes me either and…"

She was abruptly cut off when Kurt covered her mouth with his hand. "Rachel, you're babbling."

When his hand left her mouth she found herself nodding like a bobble head. "Yes I am, I just don't know what…" She caught herself with a sigh. "Look until that baby is born it's really a moot point. I won't add anything to Noah's already full plate, and I would really appreciate if you wouldn't say or do anything."

Normally he would meddle, but something about the pleading look in Rachel's eyes made him check the urge. So with a long suffering sigh he nodded. "Fine, I won't say anything for now, but if you don't do anything after the little gleek is born I cannot promise you anything."

"Thank you, Kurt!" she cried as they started back down the hall. "Now about the costumes for Regionals."

"Don't push it Berry."

When Puck shut his locker that afternoon before Glee he turned just in time to see Jacob fleeing from a very smug looking Kurt and letting out an undignified squeak when he saw Puck. The behavior was squirrelly even for the little weirdo and he watched him with growing curiosity until he fell into step with Kurt outside the choir room door. "What was that about Hummel?"

Kurt smiled. "Let's just say that Rachel won't have any more problems with the trashy come-ons moving forward."

Before Noah could ask how the hell he had managed that they were in the room and Kurt was off across the room to gossip with Mercedes. With a bemused look on his face he took his seat next to Mike. Rachel came in with a bounce in her step and took her now customary spot between Puck and Matt. The grin on her face was brighter than usual and Puck looked over at her questioningly.

"What exactly happened with Hummel and Jacob?" he asked

Rachel turned the full force of a sparkling grin on him and it struck him just how beautiful she was when she smiled like that. He was so caught up in that surprising thought that he tuned in halfway through her answer. "…..how persuasive Kurt can be when he wants to." No sooner were the words out of her mouth than Me. Shue had called her and Brittany up to the front to ask a question about potential choreography.

Noah watched her go and was kind of amazed to find his gaze lingering on the length of her legs and the movement of her skirt for the first time since they had struck up this absurdly weird friendship of theirs. When he finally regained his focus he turned to find Matt and Mike staring at him with twin grins of amusement on their faces. "What the hell are you two smiling at?" he questioned defensively.

"Oh nothing," Mike answered. "Just wondering when you started looking at Berry like a five year old looks at a lollipop."

"Seriously," Matt added. "Epic want much, dude?"

Puck managed to resist the urge to punch them, if only barely. "I don't have a clue what you idiots are talking about."

"Come on, man. You're honestly going to tell us that with all the time you two have been spending with each other you haven't thought about getting back with her?"

"I…" He looked up to the front of the room where Rachel and Brittany looked to be in serious conversation, watching as she tucked her hair behind her ears and briefly caught his eyes. She smiled that same radiant smile and his stomach did a little flip that made him feel like a pre-pubescent girl crushing on a Jonas. Half lost in thought; he started talking without really registering what he was saying. "Look it hasn't been like that with me and Rachel. Ever since everything went down with the baby she's been the only one to really stand by me. So now mater how banging that body of hers is or how much I want my hands on it I'm not going to ruin the first new friendship I've had since the first grade."

"Wow."

Mike's surprised comment got Puck to tune back in real quick, and he turned to find them staring at him again. "Look, just forget it."

Matt shook his head. "Dude, we didn't realize that you felt that way; if we had known you felt like Berry was the only one who cared we wouldn't have acted different when everything went down with Finn and Quinn."

Feeling embarrassed and completely out of his element, he shrugged. "It's cool. I mean it's not like I acted like a real stand up guy, and I got Rachel out of it so…"

"Okay that's it, who are you and what have you done with the real Puckerman?" Mike asked eyes wide.

"What, I can't change? I can be deep!" Puck protested.

Mike snorted. "Yeah, about as deep as a kiddy pool."

The guy camaraderie seemed to be back, and all of them paused for a moment when they realized it. Noah found he couldn't stand the potential for a man bonding moment and decided to speak up again. "Listen just lay off the whole Rachel thing okay?"

"Whatever you want bro," Matt told him, though it was pretty clear it wasn't likely to happen in the long run.

"Guys," Mike said, affecting a tone of faux terror. "Does this mean we have to like hug now?"

This time Puck couldn't fight off the urge, and the rest of the Glee club looked up at Mike's indignant cry as he got popped in the shoulder.

Note From The Author—Okay, so I couldn't resist the usage of Puckleberry : ) Also, I apologize if this chapter is a bit short. I'm not really happy with it and I couldn't seem to find any other logical place to cut it off