ii.

When Puck stumbles through the door of the choir room, his hands shoved into his pockets and his eyes trained on the ground, Rachel nearly tumbles out of her chair.

Though she did win their little challenge fair and square and she truly does believe that Puck wants to do the right thing, she's surprised to see him hold up his end of the deal.

Puck ignores the whispers from the other glee clubbers and stalks over to Rachel, who stands to greet him with a wide smile.

"I hope you're happy," he grumbles.

"Extremely," she beams. "I think what you're doing is brave. Facing the people you hurt, trying to fix your mistakes."

"Whatever. Don't make a big deal out of this."

"Then I'll just say welcome back, Noah."

He rolls his eyes and brushes past her, plopping down into one of the hard plastic chairs. He glares threateningly at Kurt and Mercedes beside him who abruptly end their whispering.

Rachel moves to sit beside Puck, but when Finn joins them, she hurries to his side, pressing a kiss to his cheek and ignoring the other pair of eyes she feels on her.

---

Glee goes as smoothly as it can for a club that is out of practice and trying to find their way back together. Puck, Quinn, and Finn sit as far from each other as possible, but Rachel still has high hopes that all the broken places will soon start to mend. Puck is back, so it's a start.

There's still a long way to, but it's a start and that's better than nothing.

After rehearsal, Finn takes Rachel by the elbow and pulls her into an abandoned corner of the room. Normally she'd welcome his advances, but the angry way his face is twisted makes her heart beat in a sickening sort of way.

"Did you do this?" he demands, his voice low and harsh. "Get Puck to come back?"

"Yes, but Finn…" she tries, but he quickly cuts her off, "I cannot believe you Rachel!"

"I'm sorry this upsets you." She puts a hand on his bicep but he shrugs it off. "But we need him."

"You could have found someone else!" he seethes. "Anyone but him."

"I understand that you're mad. After everything, rightfully so. But he does want to try to make things right. He's your best friend."

"No," he grounds out. "He was my best friend. Not anymore. And you… I can't believe you'd do this." He shakes his head disapprovingly before spinning away and stomping out of the room.

"Finn!" she calls out desperately, but he's too far gone.

"Starting to rethink what a great idea this was?" Puck asks lightly as he sidles up beside her.

She tenses, her heart still hammering from Finn, but she resolutely tells him no. "He's still angry. It's understandable. But he's going to come around and this is all going to work out. I know it."

Puck just rolls his eyes.

"We should start rehearsing our duet," she tells him suddenly. "We haven't even picked our song yet and practice does make perfect. My house, tomorrow at four. Don't be late," she adds before he can make any objections.

---

Puck is late.

Rachel half expects him to be, but that doesn't stop her from flying into a lecture about the importance of punctuality the moment he finally does arrive.

He doesn't listen to a word she says, naturally, but he does notice when she's finally quiet and asks, "So, are you ready or what?"

She rolls her eyes and lets out an exasperated sigh, wondering why she fought so hard to have him as a partner in the first place.

When he starts for the stairs, she reaches out a hand and stops him. "Maybe it would best if we practiced down here."

His lips curve into a devilish smile. "Worried you wont be able to keep your hands off me like last time?"

"You are impossible, Noah Puckerman," she huffs and adds a petulant foot stomp to emphasize her frustration. "It was you who started that. Besides, I do have a boyfriend now. I'm not sure he would appreciate me being alone with another boy in my bedroom. Especially if that boy is you."

"Saint Finn doesn't know you're rehearsing at your house with the enemy?"

"I think, given his fragile emotional state regarding you and Quinn, it would be best if he didn't know about this."

"So… you're lying to him."

"No. No, not exactly.

"Whatever you say, Rach," he smirks.

Neither move, but Puck stares at her expectantly before she finally concedes and says, "Fine! We can practice in my bedroom."

He smiles triumphantly before they start up the stairs, but she turns towards him, pointing a finger in his face. "But what happened last time will never happen again," she warns.

Puck just laughs as he follows her.

---

Their next eight rehearsals go something like this: They argue over which song to sing for their duet for an hour. She wants something classic - he could be the Neil to her Barbara. He wants something edgy and new. Their choices are usually something the other has never heard of before.

When one finally gives in to the other's song choice, they try to make it work with their voices and usually end up failing miserably. Then one of two things happen: Puck storms out or they dissolve into a fit of laughter.

They never get much done.

But somewhere along the line, they end up looking forward to their after-school rehearsals (except the ones that end with the yelling and the door slamming). More than either one would ever dare to admit.

---

It's a Friday afternoon and they're in the middle of a heated argument over why there's no way in hell they're singing "All I Ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera when Puck glances at the clock that sits on her bedside table and says, "Yo, Rach, I gotta bounce."

"What? No. We have so much work to do. We don't even have a song, Noah!"

He shrugs. "Sorry. Can't keep the ladies waiting."

"Ladies?" she asks, her voice pitching higher than she intends it to.

"Yeah, Olivia Martin's having a party tonight and I'd told Summer Phillips that I'd take her."

"What about Quinn?"

"What about her? She's knocked up. I don't think she should be drinking or partying."

"But… don't you want to be with her? I thought…"

"Quinn's made it pretty clear she doesn't want to be with me. I'm gonna be a good dad to my kid, but I'm not gonna waste my time chasing her around. I'm a stud - I don't chase. Girls chase me."

"It's amazing," she quips sardonically, "A personality like yours and you can't keep Quinn."

"Even more amazing, a personality like yours and you can keep Finn," he returns, but regrets it as soon as he sees her face fall. "I… You know I didn't…"

"It's fine. Just go. We'll rehearse on Monday. But we're doing "All I Ask of You.""

"We'll see," he tells her playfully and she can hear him laughing as he bounds down the steps.

---

When Puck shows up at Rachel's Monday afternoon, he promises her they can do "Anything You Can Do" from that lame musical Kentucky or Montana or whatever in lieu of an apology. Rachel accepts with a wide smile and all is forgiven.

"But it's from Oklahoma," she corrects him as they walk to her bedroom. "Really, Noah, your knowledge of classic musicals is abhorrent."

They're an hour into practice when the doorbell sounds.

"Rach, I think someone's here," Puck tells her, shouting over her booming voice.

She stops singing and tells him to stay put before she goes rushing down the stairs to answer the door. Her heart sinks as soon as she pulls the door open and is face-to-face with a smiling Finn.

He bends down to press a quick kiss to her lips. "Hey."

"Finn," she squeaks. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you."

"Oh. It's just that I was in the middle of something…" She tries to push him back out the door, but when Puck calls her name from the top of the stairs, he's frozen in place.

It physically hurts her to lift her eyes to Finn's face, scared of his reaction, but when she finally does, it's just as painful as she imagined.

"Finn," she tries weakly. "It's not… we were just practicing our duet." Her hands are still on his chest and her fingers curl into the fabric of his t-shirt, trying to hold onto him.

"I can't even look at you right now," he growls angrily before he snaps out of her hold and rushes out of the house.

Rachel closes the door after him, resting her head on the cool wood and blowing out a long breath.

"Hey, it's cool if you wanna go after him or whatever," Puck offers. He's made his way to the middle of the stairs now, not sure if he should stay or go.

She picks herself off and turns back to him. "No, we still need to practice."

And that's that.

---

"Do you want to keep the baby?"

Rachel's blunt question doesn't surprise him - two weeks of being around her constantly has prepared him for them - but this question does take him off-guard.

"Yes, of course I want to keep her. That's my kid."

"Even though you're only 16? You have your whole life ahead of you, Noah," she adds softly, coming to settle beside him on the edge of her bed.

"So, what? I'm just suppose to give her up to strangers because of that? That's weak."

Rachel smiles and shakes her head. "You know, sometimes, Noah, you really surprise me."

"Why do you call me that?"

"It's your name. And it's certainly much better than Puck."

A lopsided grin falls on his lips. "You're the only person who calls me that. Besides my mom."

"Well it's a lovely Hebrew name."

"You know, if it was up to me and I got to keep her, I think I'd want her to have a Hebrew name."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"I don't know," he shrugs. "I like Hannah. And I guess Rachel's not so bad."

Beside him, Rachel tries to control her smile and adds, "It's a lot better than Puck."

---

It's almost February and bitterly cold out, but Rachel braves the inclement weather to wait for Puck after basketball practice in the parking lot.

He finds her at his truck, shivering in the snow. "God, you are crazy," he laughs. "What the hell are you doing out there?"

Puck unlocks his truck and pushes her in. Inside the cab it's just as cold as it is outside, so he wraps his arm around her shoulders and pulls her close. "Sorry, no heat," he tells her.

"It's okay," she chatters. "I just needed to tell you something."

"You couldn't come inside the nice, warm gym? "

'"I didn't want Finn to see me," she confesses.

He knows where this is headed so he simply manages a quiet, "Oh."

"I think it would be best if we stopped practicing at my house. Our duet's great as it is, so I think if we just work on fine-tuning it before and after glee, we'll be fine."

He pulls his arm away from her. "Because of Finn, right?"

"He is my boyfriend. I should respect his feelings on the matter - he's not ready to forgive you and he certainly doesn't trust you after what happened with Quinn."

"Right, Finn thinks I'm going to steal his girl again?"

"I know that would never happen. I'm certainly no Quinn…"

The pained way she says it makes him consider telling her that she's right - she's no Quinn, but that's what he likes best about her.

But he doesn't.

"But be that as it may, I still think it would be best if we honored Finn's wishes. I know you don't want to hurt him any more than you already have and I don't want to lose him."

"Jesus Christ, Finn's the biggest idiot I know and he still has people falling all over him. Including me."

"Noah," she scolds.

"Okay, Rachel, we'll stop practicing at your house if it'll make you happy."

"Not me, Finn."

The words feel wrong coming out of her mouth and she's struck by just how much when she sees Puck's face twist with confusion. But she pushes those niggling little feelings away because now that she's got the boy of her dreams, she's not going to do everything in her power to keep him.

Even if that means putting an end to her happy afternoons with the boy beside her.

"Does this mean I don't have to drive your ass home now?" he asks even as he starts the truck and shifts into reverse.

She scoots across the bench so that she can put her seatbelt on and then reminds him to do the same.

Puck grumbles something she can't quite make out under his breath, but she smiles when he clicks his seatbelt into place and starts in the direction of her house.

---

It takes Rachel until Monday at 4:27 to miss Puck (he usually arrived at her house to practice at 4:15).

She didn't know it was possible to miss someone who you can't even stand half of the time.

But she does.

---

By Wednesday, Rachel has decided on a course of action.

She marches down the hallway with her head held high, but the fast, erratic way her heart is beating makes her want to throw up.

When she spots Finn, she begins to lose her nerve. She reminds herself that this will probably be one of the hardest things she's ever done and in the face of such adversity, she needs to remain strong. That's what a star does.

"Finn, I've been thinking," she begins, beside him at his locker. "You and I are very different. Our goals don't exactly match, currently, and I can't really see us going anywhere."

"Wait. What?"

"I think you're amazing and sweet and talented. But… I don't see us working out."

The words feel familiar when they pass through her lips and she remembers the last time she said them - to another boy because of this one.

She doesn't want to admit she's saying them again to this boy because of the other - she really does believe what she's telling him - but Puck and their afternoon practices are in the back of her mind.

'You're breaking up with me?" he chokes out, his brows furrowed together.

"Yes," she admits bravely. "I'm sorry, Finn. But I really think this is for the best."

She forces a weak smile and before she can change her mind, she walks away.