Disclaimer: I don't own Glee

Fair warning we are leaving reality behind here. We are venturing into the world of comic. Don't expect realism in what follows. At. All.

Radiating Love

Puck was driving down route 13 when it happened. He was finishing off a bottle of Jack Daniels and the fumes of his numerous joints still filled the truck cab. His radio was broken a result of him kicking it when Finn's favorite Journey song came on. It was to be their wedding song he'd heard. None of her Broadway just Finn's favorite song. It let out a steady hiss of static snow. He held the truck on the road remarkably well but then he'd had a lot of practice. It was when he saw the men in the large yellow suits waving him over that he first noticed something was wrong. There was a smell in the air like the smell of a match right after it's been struck. He pulled to a stop. Aliens? The yellow suits were running to him waving their arms. They all blurred together. Everything went golden and painful.

Puck watched the yellow gold sky for what seemed like forever. Time, space, gravity were all vague here in this golden space. His senses seemed dulled. He could hear noises but they sounded like Charlie Brown's teachers. His sense of smell seemed missing entirely and with it taste. His sense of touch was something he ignored as anytime he paid attention to it he was reminded of the pain that racked his whole body.

He might have floated endlessly through that golden haze but for a brief moment his hearing cleared up.

"I'm back Noah. Hospital salads are quite good you know."

Rachel? That sounded like Rachel. Hospital? Puck began to move towards her voice straining to hear her speak.

"Some people might think salads are boring but really you can mix almost anything up and call it a salad."

His sense of smell came back abruptly and his sense of taste. He could smell his own body odor the strongest over laid with that smell of matches again. There was some weird plastic smell and beyond that was the smell of peppers and olives and then Rachel's own body odor, like standing in a produce aisle at the grocery store with an amalgamation of fruits and vegetables.

"Right now I'm eating red, green, yellow, and orange bell peppers with green and black olives over spinach leaves with a zesty red vinegar dressing. It probably doesn't sound very good to you but I find it delicious. Then again maybe it would sounds good to you I mean you haven't had anything to eat or drink in four months so I suppose mud would taste good as long as you could taste it. I'd be happy to share with you too if you'd just open those pretty hazel peepers." Her voice sounded sad there at the end and as Puck strained closer to her his sense of touch came back.

The all over pain had receded and now he could feel the scratch of the bed sheets, the cushion of the pillows, and the vague shape of Rachel's hand as it slid into his. There was some plastic thing covering it but he knew the shape of her palm, the feel of her fingers. She started to pull away and he closed his hand over hers.

"No don't go….Rachel." Was that his voice so scratchy and low?

"Noah? Noah!" He heard a frantic shuffle of something and valiantly tried to open his eyes. He was still surrounded by yellow but now he saw the inside of a plastic bag with that clover leaf symbol for radiation all over it. Where was Rachel? There! Two brown eyes peered down at him from a tiny window near the top of the bag. He smiled up at her and winked.

What followed were the sounds of a frantic rush of people. Doctors and nurses from the sounds of it. Many of which tried to make Rachel leave but he clamped down on her hand. No if she left she'd leave she'd disappear and go off to marry Finn. Rachel was staying there with him for as long as he could keep her. Finally motions were made to put Rachel into some kind of suit from the sounds of it. As she struggled around balancing on one foot he kept hold of her hand moving and balancing her as needed until she was done. Then finally the bag was unzipped. There was a whoosh of sound like he'd been airtight inside the bag. He closed his eyes and relished the feel of cool air on his face. Once the bag was open the feeling of containment passed and he smiled and stretched and yawned. One hand reach back to touch the wall behind his bed while his feet pressed against the bottom frame. He felt it give a little but was more concerned at trying to get some moisture in his mouth. He looked around and spotted a water bottle. Rachel's he assumed. He pointed at it. He wasn't going to try talking again until he got something to drink. He didn't like sounding all weak and wispy.

"Water? Okay." Rachel's voice came out of the weird suit's microphone. What was up with all the weird protection?

Rachel retrieved the water and looked at it and her captive hand. "I need my other hand Noah."

He lifted the hand he was still holding through the plastic bag looked like he was thinking for a second before deciding that letting her go was simply too risky and with her holding the bottle he twisted the cap off and then took it from her. The people in the suits around him muttered and made notes on the charts. He took several healthy drinks coating his dry mouth before finally finishing the bottle off. He crushed the plastic and chucked it into the waste basket he saw beside his bed not noticing how the plastic had molded around his fingers for an instant. He used his free hand to level himself into a sitting position. The sheet covering his chest fell and he noticed he wasn't really wearing anything. He lifted the sheet high enough that he could see his toes. He wiggled them experimentally before lowering the sheet.

"Well…" He cleared his throat and tried again in his normal voice, "Well nice to see I'm still all there." He turned to look at Rachel. At least he assumed it was Rachel. The oversized helmet had a reflective visor that he couldn't see through but he could still feel her hand through the plastic. "What's with all the gear? I don't smell that bad do I?" He smiled at Rachel's visor. God he wanted to see her face.

"How are you feeling, son?"

Puck turned to face the voice but he had trouble figuring out which one had said what. They all looked the same in these suits. "Good, great in fact. There was a lot of pain for a while. Every time I woke up at least so I just went back to sleep. But I feel great now. Like seriously really really good." It was true. He felt like he did after a good workout. Pumped, strong, full of life only better than that; a lot better.

"So you've woken up before?" A different voice this time. More to the left closer to the window. Puck wished there was somewhat to determine who was who.

"Yeah a couple of times. It felt like my whole body was on fire though so I just pushed it away and went back to sleep. It'd been a long time since I'd tried but today my hearing cleared up so I could actually make things out and I heard Rachel talking and I tried to get up because she was going away so I held on to her and here we are."

"I'm not going anywhere Noah."

"That's true. She hasn't left since you were bought in. Threw an unholy fit whenever anyone tried to remove her and screamed the walls down when they tried to carry her out of the hospital. The one time they succeeded, she apparently snuck out of her father's house, hitchhiked back here and crawled through the ventilation system to bypass security. They gave up on making her leave after that." A female voice this time, she sounded equal parts humored, impressed and frustrated.

"Damn, Baby."

Rachel blushed. He couldn't see it but he could tell from the way she shifted her feet and curled her fingers against his hand.

"We need to run some tests on you Noah then we'll see about getting your girlfriend out of the suit." The first voice spoke again. There were five suits in the room. Rachel, the first, the second, the woman, and the last stood in the back watching them all but not speaking.

Puck waited for Rachel to launch into an explanation of how she was not his girlfriend that she was in fact engaged to his best friend. But she didn't say a word; just held his hand as the doctor which was who he figured the second voice was started asking him questions and eventually the woman, the nurse he figured moved in to check his vitals.

His temperature was high but he was told 106 was pretty normal for him now. They checked his dexterity with him doing one hand at a time trading off holding Rachel's hand. Even he was starting to find his reluctance to let her go strange but every time he even thought about letting go of her hand his mind instantly dismissed it as if he'd just thought about chopping off a limb. He couldn't live without his limbs why would he let go of Rachel. It was like the importance of both was equal. The first man called in a sixth after the doctor was done and the sixth bought in a strange machine that made a weird static noise. Again there were numerous mutters between the suits using words that went far over his head anyway. He turned to look at the reflective surface of Rachel's mask. God he wished he could see her face. Could touch her skin instead of this thick plastic.

The sixth man ran his odd handheld wand that was connected to his weird machine over his body. He paused over his and Rachel's hands. He waved the wand at various heights around his body paying special attention to the hand that grasp Rachel's. "Can you do me a favor Buddy?"

Puck raised an eyebrow and nodded.

"I know you don't wanna let go of her hand but can she put a hand on your chest or somewhere else?" The sixth man looked at Rachel too when he asked this and after a brief moment Puck nodded.

Rachel placed her hand in the center of Puck's chest and then pulled her hand free of his other. There was this moment of panic for Puck but Rachel pressed down on his chest and he calmed. He wouldn't take his eyes off her though. He noticed the sixth man was now running his wand over Rachel well concentrating on the areas she was still touching him. His hands were free but she'd placed her other one on his shoulder.

Finally the sixth man pulled back and after consulting his machine a couple more times released the seal of his helmet. He pulled it off and Puck saw a young man, maybe mid-twenties with straw colored hair, buck teeth, and dull blue eyes. "He's safe. For the most part. I don't recommend anyone touching him but her but the air around him is clean up to about a centimeter above his skin."

"Why her?" The first man asked as he too removed his helmet revealed a handsome man with auburn hair and light blue eyes.

"Don't know. But where they touch the radiation is neutralized. Anyone else might as well have stuck their hand in radioactive goop."

"Thank you, Corporal. That'll be all for now."

The young man saluted and walked out.

The doctor and the nurse started to remove their helmets as well. The fifth man walked up and waved them outside. Puck wasn't paying attention to that though.

He'd caught a hold of Rachel's wrist and together they were trying to remove her suit. Her helmet came off first and he got to see her smile at him. She looked tired and her eyes were red as if she'd been crying for a very long time. It took some doing but finally they opened the front of the suit and Rachel ignored the rest of the zippers. Instead she pulled her arms and head loose and Puck couldn't stop his wide smile when she finally slipped her naked hand in his. She was trying to fight the leggings off when Puck reached out an arm and pulled her into his lap where she kicked the last of the suit off. She smiled and wiggled in his lap trying to get balanced and comfortable. With her hands now touching his skin and his hands running over her bare legs he was now much more willing to let her have both hands free, especially since she was sitting on his lap in the circle of his arms. He squeezed her to him and breathed in the scent of her hair. After noting her ringless left hand he felt bold enough to kiss her temple, her fingertips, her cheek. God she felt so warm, and soft and alive.

"I'm so glad you're okay Noah." Rachel pressed her lips together like she was trying not to cry.

"Hey Baby I'm fine." He pressed her face into his throat.

"You weren't for a long time."

"How long was I out?"

"Four months Noah. Four months! They found you in February and it's May. We graduate in a few weeks!"

"You graduate in a few weeks. Even I had been there I probably wouldn't have graduated."

"Don't talk like that." She pressed a tiny fist into his hard chest. There was no give to him anymore. It felt just like pressing her fist against a steel locker. Warm fleshy steel but nevertheless.

"Hitting a man in a hospital bed. Shame on you Rachel." He laughed and covered her little fist before bringing it up to kiss the knuckles.

She pouted and he laughed and snuggled her close.

"Shame on you Noah. They said you were driving drunk and high as a kite. I've waited four months with that question burning in my mind in between crying and raging and being worried out of my skull. Why Noah? Why were you out near the power plant drunk and high?"

Puck's face, which had been open and smiling since he'd woken up to find Rachel beside him, shut down like a steel door. He frowned down at the little fist now and rubbed his thumb over the base of her ring finger. "You still marrying him?"

Rachel just looked at him for a moment. "Noah when they called and said you were in the hospital I was the first one here. When they said we could see you but we couldn't bring anything metal into the room I pulled off my necklace and ring, unzipped my skirt and took off my shoes and bra in the WAITING ROOM. Then I ran in here and refused to leave your side. Even when Finn demanded I come back out or the wedding was off. How could I marry him when every iota of my being apparently belongs to you. I just didn't know it until the second they said you could die!" She choked up and started crying. "Oh Noah I'm so sorry! It IS my fault you were out on that road drunk and high. I'm sorry."

"Hey if it helps anything from what we can tell it was the drunk and high part that saved you." The first man said.

The two teens looked at him inquisitively.

"Uh it's complicated and honestly I probably can't even say half the words right. The scientists said something about the drugs and alcohol doing something to you that allowed the radiation to change you instead of kill you."

"One final test to see if it changed you like we think it did." The final man said. He was older, a high and tight military haircut never the less showed some of his grey hair. He had a no nonsense face and he tossed Puck a steel ingot. Puck's fist shot out to grab it. "Squeeze that as tight as you can."

Puck furrowed his brow at him but complied. He folded the thing up in his hand and squeezed. He figured it was made of aluminum or something because it was easily crushed in his hand but he hadn't squeezed as tight as he could yet. He squeezed tighter and then he saw it. Rachel jerked her legs out of the way just in time as hot molten steel ran out of his fist and burned through the sheet. It burned through the first little bit of the mattress before stopping. When Puck opened his hand it was coated by the melted quickly cooling steel. A thin sliver of the original ingot rested in the center of his palm mangled like he'd just squeezed silly putty instead of hard metal. He gapped up at the men.

"Okay we didn't expect that."

"What the FUCK were you expecting?"

"Oh yeah he's fine." stated Santana from the doorway.

The next several weeks unfold like a comic book. Rachel graduates. Puck doesn't but SHIELD gets a GED to him so he does have a diploma; not that it matters in his new job. He gets trained as a SHIELD agent, translation, he's now a superhero rubbing elbows with the likes of Captain America and Ironman; which blows his mind on a regular basis.

Cap's cool kind of reminds him of Finn only in a non-douche bag sort of way. Tony Stark and Bruce Banner both stare at him like he's a lab rat and make not so subtle hints to join them in the laboratory. Thor and Hawkeye grin at him and drag him into training rooms to beat the shit out of him while firing arrows at his ass. You'd think being irradiated would make physical fighting easy; turns out radiation means fuck all to thunder gods. Rachel mostly spends time with Black Widow which scares Puck more than he'd like to admit.

Turns out associating Rachel with a limb wasn't a bad comparision. As the only person able to touch him that translates into her having to do a lot of stuff for him that he simply can't do because he can't touch a lot of stuff. As far as he's concerned that's fine but it does make him feel bad that he's taken over her life to do this. Which is why with Ms. Potts' help he gets transferred to the Avenger's tower in New York instead of the facility out in Nebraska. There he encourages Rachel to audition. Just because he needs her doesn't mean he wants her to miss the things she needs too. He laughs when she gets a part of an Off-Off Broadway show the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas but he loves the outfits. The knowledge that she had to replace every bit of metal in the tiny bit of silk with plastic makes him extra careful when he finally peels it from her body.