Yo guys. Sorry I haven't updated for a while. School has been brutal, and I'm now sick :/ Meh.. But anyway, here is chapter 4. A little less Puck then I originally planned, but I really wanted a little into Santana, so yeah. Hope you guys like it! Don't forget to review!

Disclaimer: Me don't own Glee. Never have, never will. That is actually kind of depressing..

Chapter 4

For the next 4 days, Rachel was buzzing. She had gotten her dress, her shoes, Eli's suite (which was one of the cutest things she may have ever seen, especially since Eli wore his very un-amused scowl while in the suite), his shoes, and had gotten both of their hair done.

The 4 days went so quick for her that before she realized it, it was the day of the reunion. Since it was a day off today for both of them, she let him sleep in, for she knew it was going to be a long night tonight.

It was when she was sitting on the couch, the sun streaming threw the open windows, reading a book when it finally hit her. A weird, out of place nervous feeling started in the pit of her stomach. She pondered for a moment why this feeling had occurred, for she was surly not nervous for tonight. She talked to most of the gleeks often, so it's not like she hasn't heard from them in a while. But this feeling, this stomach knotting nervous feeling was like one that one would get seeing someone for the first time in a while when you had absolutely no contact with that person. It was a deep feeling, one she hadn't felt for some time.

She shook it off as just a simple case of the 'jitter bugs' and continued with her reading.

Yet, the feeling continued, and increased in fact.

She had a bad feeling that something was going to happen tonight, she just hadn't a clue what.

The past 4 days had been a whirl wind for her. After she had hung up on him, she just sat there for a while, the reality of what was about to take place finally sinking in.

She had no idea what was going to happen, though she did have some thoughts, and all of them ended with a slap, tears, and a storm out of epic proportions, and all those things equaled her best girl friend miserable and a broken family.

She would be lying if she said she didn't feel guilty about what she had done. She felt the guilt every time she talked to Rachel, or for god sakes, Eli. It had been eating her up inside for the past 6 years, and she was kind of relieved that it would all be out in the open now.

Now, if anyone asked her this, she would deny it to the umpteenth degree and then kill you for even mentioning such a thing, but she was scared. She was scared shoeless. She was scared about everyone blaming her, or worse, thinking she had a part of it all along, but she was most scared about losing Rachel, about having Rachel hate her. Rachel had been one of her best friend's senior year, and their weird friendship had lasted and grown immensely all these years, and she knew she would be nothing without her.

So, you can't exactly blame her for being nervous and fidgety as her, Brit, Blaine, and Kurt walked through the airport in Ohio. When they got their luggage, they would all head off to the hotel for some R&R before getting ready for the reunion tonight.

Most of the group had gotten in yesterday night or early this morning, but no one had seen each other yet. They had made a plan to meet up for the first time at the reunion. It made it more special or something.

Santana gripped her rolling Coach luggage handle tightly as they walked out to the curb to get a cab. Brittney, Blaine, and Kurt stood in front of her, talking animatedly, all smiles, while waiting for the cab. She rolled her eyes, sometimes those people were just TOO peppy, and especially today, she just wasn't in the mood.

Brit had noticed she was edge when they boarded in New York, but Santana had just told her she was tired. Britt, knowing Santana and her many moods, took the hint and dropped the subject. But that didn't mean she didn't glace at San every couple of minutes to try to catch what was really bothering her.

It wasn't Santana's fault really; just bring in the right place at the right time sort of scenario. Though she was happy that she was there when this all happened, it doesn't mean that sometimes she doesn't wish that it had been someone else there instead of her.

It had all started when Blaine burst through the back patio doors of the Hudson/Hummel household on the warm summer night of their graduation. The party was in full swing, music blaring through the speakers set up on the deck, people talking loudly and happily to each other, savoring their last high school moments together, most with a glasses of champagne in their hands, so when Blaine rushed through, saying something along the lines of "Rachel….crying….Puck…gone….come…..quickly.." that everyone forgot all about their previous conversations and rushed over to the gasping Blaine.

After Blaine had caught his breath and the whole story had come out, while most of the others went over to Puck's house to comfort Rachel, Santana rushed out and high tailed it the opposite way to find Puck.

That night, you would not want to know what was going through her mind as she drove over to the dinner on the edge on town. Every curse word and insult she knew, in both English and Spanish, were flying out of her mouth at a rapid pace. When she finally made it to the dinner, she parked, got out, and took a look around. Seeing Puck's truck in the far corner of the parking lot, she stormed inside, glaring around, and spotting him a secluded booth. She stomped her way over to him, and right as she was about to let all the venom she had been building up on the ride over here spill out, he looked up and she froze, all the anger leaving her body.

His eyes, his stupid expressive eyes, were completely broken. She had never seen them this broken, even after the whole Beth situation. He looked like a lost little boy who just lost his mother and father. He looked completely helpless.

She got out of her frozen shape, and slid into the booth opposite him. He continued to stare at her, and a little piece of her broke. She instinctively reached across the table and grabbed his hand, attempting to show him a sliver of comfort. He took it willingly, eagerly almost, and squeezed it tightly, before letting it go and turning to look out the window next to them.

They sat in silence for sometime, him watching the stars glimmer outside, and her watching him. The look on his face was oddly familiar to her, so she studied him some more. That's when it hit her; he had a similar look when his dad had left.

Even though they didn't officially know each other until high school, it was a small town, so everybody at least saw everybody around. It had been a cool Saturday afternoon, and she had gone to the park to meet one of her friends. She was walking past the swings when she saw him, swinging by himself, a defeated expression painted on his tan face. His eyes were dead as he looked up at the sky, slowly swinging himself back and forth.

Those eyes, that expression, almost mirrored that day, except that this one looked more hurt, more broken, a far deeper wound.

When she cleared her throat to get his attention so she could find out what the heck was going on, she was thoroughly surprised to hear him speak first.

"I'm not going back, so save the lecture." His voice was horse and gravely, a sure tell sign he had been crying.

When she found her voice, she spoke with all the confidence she could muster, "I'm….. I'm not going to lecture you. I just want to know what's wrong."

He looked over to her, and she say his bloodshot eyes. Yep, he had definitely been crying, and when Puck cried, some major crap must have gone down.

"I need to go. I can't stay here. I need to fix things, make them better. I can't be like him."

Her soft, comforting expression soon changed to confusion as she took in his words. She knew who the 'he' he was referring to was, but she didn't know why he was referring to 'him' at all. One more look into his eyes, and she decided against asking him the obvious question, and took to comforting him instead.

"You're nothing like him Puck, and you know that. You have worked your whole life making sure you wouldn't turn out like him, and you did a hell of a good job. You helped raise your sister, you were always there for you mom. You are the complete opposite of him," She was going to leave it there, but then she remembered why she was sitting in this dinner in the first place, and some of her anger returned, "so don't waste all those years of work for nothing Puck."

She saw him visibly wince at her tone and her words, and he slumped over a little more in his seat.

"That's the point Santana. If I stay, I'm gonna be just like him. I can't be like him, I can't." He had never sounded this desperate before, like he was begging her to see his side of things.

She didn't, couldn't right now. She had to know the full story first. So she asked the question that had been hanging in the front of her mind for the past 20 minutes, "What happened?"

After a few moments of eerie silence passed between them, he picked his head up, looked her dead in the eyes, and said the three words she was sure she would never hear out of his mouth for as long as she lived,

"He came back."

Hehe, I love cliff hangers. Sorry :) So, hoped you guys liked it, and hope your starting to see the pieces fit together a little better. Kays, so thanks for reading, and I promise the next chapter will be up quicker.

Chapter 5: Rest of the dinner scene, Puck's POV & a little of Sam's POV.

Gracias!

3, D