A/N: Wow...really that's all I have to say. I'm so glad that you guys are loving the story (15+ reviews & 100+ story alerts - OMG I'm going to have a heart attack. lol) and I hope that you continue to read. Please leave me reviews because they let me know that you're liking the story. I also just love to hear your thoughts. I forgot in the last chapter, but I'd like to thank my beta written in dreams for the great job she does. Onto the story...Oh yeah except I own nothing except the plot - the show and characters belong to someone who is sadly not me. =)

Rachel sat quietly, waiting for him to respond. But he didn't say anything so she finally spoke up. "Hello? Noah?"

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure that I heard you correctly. Would you like to run that one by me one more time?"

Rachel sighed. Of course he was going to make this difficult. It wasn't like this wasn't one of the hardest things that she'd ever had to do without him being his usual self. "You have a son, Noah." She paused, swiping at her eyes again as the tears threatened to fall. "I found out I was pregnant a few weeks after our argument."

"And you're telling me this now?" The anger in his voice was barely controlled and she was really glad that she wasn't standing in front of him because although she knew he'd never hit a woman before in his life, he just might consider hitting her now.

"He's sick." The tears were streaming down her face and she didn't even bother to try and stop them. "We need you, Noah."

"Dr. Nelson, you're scaring me." Rachel wrung her hands together as she sat across from the desk of her son's doctor.

"I'm sorry, Rachel, but I have some bad news."

"The leukemia is back, isn't it?" She closed her eyes against the onslaught of emotions as well as to keep the tears from falling.

"It's worse than that." He paused. "The chemo didn't work as well as we had hoped it would and it's worse than before. The only option is a bone marrow transplant."

"Well fine then. We'll have mine checked." Rachel had done all of the necessary research when they'd found out that Nathaniel had become ill close to a year before. They'd known that a bone marrow transplant would be a last resort, but a real possibility.

"As we discussed before, parents aren't often a match. But I will check you and if you can get into contact with his father we will check him as well, but the best bet would be a sibling – even a half-sibling."

Beth.

And with that thought, Rachel felt her world crumble around her. She'd thought that she could handle this on her own; after all, she'd been raising her son on her own for over four years, but this changed things. She would contact Puck to tell him he had a son, one he hadn't known about for over four years so that he could be tested. But if neither of them were a match then she would have to break down and contact her mother because it was possible that Beth could save her son's life.

The two people in the world that she'd wanted nothing to do with and she was going to have to contact them. If it had been for anything besides her son she never could've done it, but for him she would.

Puck walked into the coffee shop and immediately his eyes went to Rachel. She was as beautiful as he remembered, but she was harder somehow. Her face was lined and her eyes filled with hurt. He steeled himself. He couldn't let her pain wipe out the anger he felt over being left out of his son's life for four fucking years. She fucking owed him.

He slid into the booth across from her, his face blank. "Berry."

"Noah." She tried to give him a smile, but failed. She looked down at her hands that were tearing a napkin apart. "Thank you for coming."

Puck snorted. "You act like I had a choice. You call me after five years to tell me that I have a son. What the fuck do you expect me to do? Hang up and never speak to you again?"

She shrugged. "You could've and I wouldn't have blamed you."

"Let's just get this over with. What the hell is going on?"

Rachel reached into her purse and pulled out a picture. "This is your son, Nathaniel, Nathan for short. He's four and a half and he is so much like you sometimes that it's not even funny." She laughed. "But the reason I called is because he was diagnosed with leukemia about a year ago. We tried chemo and a few other experimental procedures, but nothing has worked. He has to get a bone marrow transplant or he'll die." She buried her face in her hands as her body shook with sobs.

And just like that all of the anger was gone. It didn't matter why she hadn't told him she was pregnant. It didn't matter that he'd missed the first four years of his son's life. What mattered was the fact that he could die before Puck ever got the chance to know him.

"What can I do?" He slid his hand across the table and laid it lightly on her arm.

"I need you to get tested to see if you're a match." She looked up at him with tear filled eyes. "I wasn't."

"And if I'm not?"

Rachel shook her head. "The best matches are siblings."

It took him less than a minute to register what that meant. He had one other child. "Beth?"

Rachel nodded. "If neither of us are a match, then I'm going to have to contact my mother to see if she'll allow Beth to be tested. Otherwise we'll have to try for a non-related donor which has a lower success rate. I know it's a long shot because parents rarely match, but I'm hoping that you're a match. Because what if we contact Shelby and she says no? Then what? I have to watch my baby wither away and die? Oh God!"

Puck didn't stop to think about what he was doing as he slid from his seat and slid onto her side of the booth. He pulled her into his arms, holding her close as she cried. No matter how much anger and resentment was between them he knew that they could push that aside so that they could concentrate on their son.

Holy shit. He had a son. The concept was so foreign that he wasn't sure he could believe it. He'd seen the picture of Nathan and he could see himself in his son, but he could also see Rachel. One thing was for sure. They made fucking pretty kids. But then he'd always known that they would.

Puck felt like he was going to puke.

Not only had he just come from having a needle shoved into his hip (and that shit had hurt like a bitch), but now he was about to meet his son for the first time. He was freaking the fuck out. What the hell were they going to say? 'Hey, kid. Here's your dad that's been MIA since you were born'? Yeah, that would work so well.

He watched through the window to the hospital room as Rachel spoke to Nathan for a few moments before pulling him into her arms. She held him to her until he started to struggle against her and then she was motioning him in.

He couldn't fucking do this. He was freaking the fuck out and not in a good way.

But somehow his hand found the doorknob and turned. And just like that he was standing in front of his son for the first time.

Nathan's hair was a dark brown just like his and Rachel's with his skin tone and his hazel eyes, but Rachel's nose and cheekbones. Kid was fucking gorgeous (and he wasn't thinking that just because it was his kid!).

"Nathan, this is Noah. Your dad." Rachel looked toward him, her eyes shining. "Noah, this is your son Nathan."

"So you're my dad?" Nathan looked up at him questioningly.

"So your mom tells me." Puck grinned as he moved to the side of the bed.

"Mom told me that I'd meet you one day." He nodded. "It's 'cause I'm sick, huh?"

Puck looked to Rachel for help. She quickly jumped in, taking their son's hand. "Your daddy didn't know about you until now because I didn't want to share you, baby boy." She kissed his forehead and Puck felt some of his anger returning, but quickly squashed it. "But we need him now that you're sick."

Nathan looked from Rachel to Puck and his eyes were too grown up for four years old. He'd seen too much and Puck would give anything to be able to wipe that from his son. He hated that he hadn't been there, although he knew there was nothing to be done about that now.

"Okay." The boy shrugged as he laid back on his bed. "I want ice cream." He turned his attention to Puck again. "Are you going to come and visit me again?"

Puck nodded. "Of course. I plan to keep coming to see you as long as you'd like me to come see you."

"Okay, babe. We're gonna get you some ice cream. Try to get some sleep." Rachel kissed Nathan's forehead before standing.

"I'll see you later, little dude." Puck held up his fist and Nathan bumped his own smaller fist against it.

"Bye!"

Puck followed Rachel from the room, not even knowing where to start. "You're going to let me see him now, right? You can't keep him from me now that I know."

Rachel leaned against the wall, shoulders slouched in as she wrapped her arms around herself. "I'm not going to talk about this right now. I can't deal with it. If you want to fight, then you'll need to find someone else. The only fight I have in me is the fight for my—our—son." Rachel finally met his eyes and he saw the anger glinting in them. "I don't have the time or energy to be wasting on you. When you're ready to have an adult conversation, you can call me. Until then I have nothing to say to you." And with that she turned on her heel and stalked down the hallway.

Well that had gone well. Puck shook his head, glancing in the window to Nathan's room once to see the boy already fast asleep. As he walked towards the elevator, he couldn't help but berate himself. He hadn't meant to fight with Rachel. He'd just wanted to be sure that she wasn't going to try and rip him from Nathan's life now that he knew about him. He'd try harder next time.