AN: Yeah, yeah I'm updating quickly... so shoot me! I'm kind of excited... Plus I've got nothing better to do at the moment... Oh and for some reason my thanks got deleted and I updated before I saw my other review...

Alley83, Diva(dot)Divine, Xnerdark, Ladybug Jess, rhiwe, Keiri Bradon, couragatcd and purplefeather21... Thanks for the reviews!

Oh and if you guys see any grammar/spelling mistakes shout out to me... Cause like, I'm dyslexic and I self beta but I don't always pick it up... Because I'm dyslexic... Thank the lord for Spell Check.

Earlier...

"Puck?" Quinn asked as Puck stalked across the parking lot. She was chasing him, trying to catching up to him to talk to him. She was considering, just considering to let him into his child's life. "Puck, can I talk to you?"

Puck turned around and Quinn saw him waving a vodka bottle in the air. She gasped and stepped back but then saw the complete confusion and frustration on his face. "Puck are you okay?" she reached out to him and placed her hand on his arm. Puck looked down at it, barely concentrating.

He looked away from her face and then down to the ground. "I've got to... I've got to go." He pushed Quinn's hand off his arm and stumbled as he turned. Quinn instantly tried to catch him but Puck pushed her off. "Not now Quinn!" he shouted at her and stalked forward.

Quinn pushed the tears from her eyes as she watched him walk into the school. "Damn hormones." she muttered.

~*~

Finn watched as Puck stormed through the hallways of McKinley with a bottle of vodka in his hands. Whoa, a bottle of what? He went to follow him but he felt a small hand on his arm. "Hey Finn," it was Quinn. Finn turned around to face her and smiled.

"Hi Quinn," and immediately everything about Puck was forgotten because Quinn was smiling at him and it had been a while since she had done that. "How are you and Drizzle?"

Quinn groaned and rolled her eyes but she was still smiling. "We are not calling her that Finn."

Finn chuckled, leaning forward to kiss Quinn. "We'll see." Had Finn known the Puck was going to the boys liquor cabinet at school (which was basically some freshman's locker who they were paying to keep their alcohol stored) he wouldn't have taken Quinn's hand and followed her to homeroom.

Present...

Rachel didn't know she was pulling up in front of Mike's house but she did know it was a big mansion sort of building in cremes and whites. There was a large driveway and a fountain out the front. Mike got out of the truck and then proceeded to get Puck out of the car. This time, Rachel didn't wait in the car. Actually, she tried to help Mike carry Puck. She couldn't hold all of his weight but held a bit as Mike carried him to the door. "Mike...?" Rachel started to ask but he groaned.

"Left my keys in my locker." He groaned as the approached the door.

Rachel looked around. "This is your house?"

"Yeah." he said and he knocked. He shifted Puck's weight around seeing as the other boy had past out again. "Rach, you can go back to school if you want. I'm not going to go back to school."

"Why not?" she asked.

Mike just looked down at Puck. "I'm so not leaving him alone here so my 'rents can find him. Or worse, Hilda."

"Hilda?"

"Housekeeper. Scary-assed woman... Hey!" the door opened and standing there was a blonde woman who looked like a cross between a bull and an elephant. "Left my keys at school."

"Who is this?" the woman who Rachel guessed was Hilda asked as Mike walked inside, Rachel not far behind.

"Oh, Hilda, this is Rachel. Rachel, Hilda."

"Not the girl, the sleeping one."

"Oh." Mike grunted as he readjusted Puck again. "This is Puck. A friend. He past out..."

"He is drunk." she said shortly.

Mike nodded with a cheesy grin on his face. "It was chemistry. Fumes and..."

"He smells like alcohol, Michael."

With a sigh Mike dragged Puck over to a lounge in the entrance and dropped him on it. "Hilda, can you please not tell my parents. Please?"

Hilda narrowed her eyes and then pulled out a walkie-talkie. She said something into it that Rachel didn't understand and then two men darted into the room and picked up Puck. "Your father left for New York this morning. Your brother and sister are in school. Justin called up to say hello and until Friday, you are in charge of the house."

Mike visibly relaxed. "Cool. Guest room boys. Thanks Hilda."

"You're welcome." Hilda said, narrowing her eyes. "But if he decides to throw up, I am not cleaning it."

Mike nodded, "Understood. Come on Rachel." Rachel was a little stunned because she just realised that she was at somebody else's house who wasn't a family member or one of her father's colleagues. Then she realised she was at a boys house and there was someone drunk out of their mind there. Plus, there was a small chance she should be calling the police and reporting what just happened on the front lawn of the Puckerman's and worse, she was skipping school!

"Rachel, come on." Rachel snapped out of her trance and noticed Mike was half-way up the stairs. Either she left now or helped Puck. Those were her choices.

Before she even finished that thought process, she was already running up the stairs, following Mike through his house who was following the two butlers. They went into the guest room which was basically a very large bedroom with a desk and unsuit. Even Rachel room wasn't this big and she had a pretty big room. Puck was on the bed, still out of it with vomit lining his shirt. Mike rolled him over onto his side while he asked one of the men to get some aspirin and water.

Once everything was there and Mike force fed Puck the aspirin and a large gulp of water, Mike looked over to Rachel and gave a small smile. "That's all we can do for now, Rach."

Rachel crossed her arms over her chest tightly and looked around unsure. Up until this point, she decided she'd been pretty patient but now things were getting on her nerves. "What's happening Mike? Why is Noah inebriated? Who was that man at his house? Why was he trying to take Noah? Why wouldn't you let Noah stay there? How come...?"

"Whoa, whoa..." Mike put his hands up in defence. "I don't know what's happening, really or why Puck's out of it. I don't know who the guy at the house was either, which is why I didn't want him taking Puck and why I didn't want Puck staying there by himself. Plus, Puck kept saying, 'get away from me' to him so I pretty much figured he didn't like him and shouldn't stay there with just that guy. Here at least, we can go back to school and there will be people to keep watch over him who I know and trust. Got it?"

Rachel nodded and frowned, staring at Puck. "I hope he's okay."

"Don't worry." Mike wrapped his arm around Rachel's shoulder, rubbing it. "Apart from a killer headache he should be okay. Hilda, for a bitch, will make sure she's fine."

"I thought you said you were going to stay." Rachel thought back to their conversation.

"Yeah, I was." Mike shrugged. "But now both my parents are out of town, I'm in charge of the house and when my brother Justin calls to say hello and he's out until Friday, it means he'll be with his girlfriend two towns over until our parents come back. It's cool Rachel, I've got this."

Rachel nodded, hugging herself tighter as she stared at Puck. Yes he was a jerk, yes he had made her life a living hell and yes, she did care about him. She couldn't help it. During their week together they had developed a sort of bond and ever since, even though they officially weren't friends, the slushie attacks had stopped and the one time it did happen again, the guy who did it turned up with a black eye and Puck had shown up to Glee club with split knuckles.

She couldn't help but smile because even with the vomit on his shirt and the fact she knew this was a substance induced sleep, he looked kind of peaceful. "Okay." she nodded. "But we need to call his mum or something."

"Yeah, well, we'll come back after school and check on him. For now we should go."

~*~

After returning to school, Rachel found it difficult to concentrate on class. As promised, Matt covered for herself and for Puck in maths class. He told the teacher that they were in Glee club practicing for their solos and probably didn't realise they were running late. Rachel was thankful but couldn't even try to comprehend how 2x times by 4 equalled thirty-two.

She was sifting through the morning, trying to think of anything that could possibly be wrong with Noah, trying to figure out what may have happened and who that man at his house had been. She knew that Puck didn't have a father, something that was common knowledge especially at the JCC because ever since he split the Puckerman family had only showed up once or twice to Temple. Not that Rachel went religiously... she just went enough to keep the Jewish community off her back.

Her thought were everywhere and disorganised and whilst she was trying to gain some sort of insight or perspective on the situation, she didn't notice that she had left maths class and was currently sitting in the lunchroom at a table by herself with no food in front of her and it was afternoon lunch, not morning lunch.

Kurt and Mercedes, just getting out of the lunch line, looked at Rachel before looking at each other. "Bets?" Kurt asked.

"Finn." Mercedes said. "Plain and simple."

"No, no, that ship as sailed." Kurt looked back to Rachel then tilted his head to the side. "Partially. She is still crying about that whole co-captain debacle. Well, she was yesterday in the bathrooms."

Flashback...

Rachel stood in front of the mirrors in the girls bathroom, blowing her nose as Kurt sat on the sink, flicking through the latest fashion magazine. "I was just... So alone Kurt. He promised but then he didn't show up!"

Kurt nodded, understandingly staring at a new pair of D&G boots. "Uhuh, tell me more." He pulled a tissue out of his pocket and handed it to her blindly.

End flashback...

"I wasted a whole packet of Kleenex." Kurt said sighing. "And the kind with print on them."

Mercedes patted his shoulder understandingly. "So, twenty-dollars on Finn?"

"I'm in." he shrugged and the two walked over to Rachel and sat either side of her. "Hellooo Miss Bee." Kurt said, twiddling his thumbs. "What is going on in that masterfully crazy mind of yours?"

Rachel looked up at Kurt and raised both her eyebrows. "Pardon?"

Mercedes broke it down for her. "Why are you sitting here all depressed?"

Rachel frowned and stared back down at the empty table in front of her. "I'm just a bit lost in thought at the moment."

"About...?" Kurt prompted.

"A lot of things." Rachel muttered. She turned her head towards the door where a few of the football guys were walking in. She excused herself, standing up abruptly. "I'll be back in a second." she said to Kurt and Mercedes.

Mercedes looked at Kurt who was pulling twenty-dollars from his wallet. "Told you it was about tall, pale and goofy."

Kurt sighed, "And here I thought she had grown."

Rachel walked over to the footballers but it wasn't Finn she went for. In fact, Finn watched her walk right past him. "We have Glee practice this afternoon." Finn turned around and saw Rachel talking to Mike. "What if..."

"Shush." Mike and Matt both put their hands in front of Rachel's mouth. "I told you Rachel, it'll all be fine." Mike took his hand away.

Rachel frowned at both of them. "But..."

"No buts." Matt said, covering her mouth again and grabbing the back of her head. "It'll all be fine."

Finn stopped and walked over to them. "Hey guys, what's happening?"

Mike looked up at Finn and grinned, tilting his head to the side. "Not much man, what's happening with you?"

Finn shrugged. "Same old, same old. Rach, are you alright?"

Rachel looked between Mike and Matt who both had very serious looks on their faces. Puck hadn't wanted Finn to know whatever was going on so they couldn't tell him, yet. Rachel realised she was treading around some great boy code thing and decided to tread lightly. "Yes, Finn, I am perfectly fine. I was just discussing the new dance routine. With Puck out today, I don't believe we'll be able to finish it."

Finn frowned and looked left and right. Puck was no where in sight. With this thought, Finn remembered Puck stalking through the always that morning with a bottle in his hand. Instantly he thought about covering for his friend. "Oh, uh, yeah... I uh, heard he was sick."

Mike frowned and tilted his head to the side. "Sick? How so?"

"Uh..." Finn frowned. "He uh..." Finn was no good thinking on the spot. "Um... Okay, I've got nothing." His shoulders slumped. "I saw him walking through the halls this morning with a bottle of vodka in his hand and before you start lecturing Rachel I've only ever seen him act like that once before and that was when..." But then he noticed Mike, Matt and Rachel relax, relief crossing all their faces. "Wait... what's going on?"

"We knew." Matt explained. "We didn't know if you knew."

"Rach and I found Puck this morning stumbling through the halls and took him home." said Mike. "So we went to take him home but..."

"But there was some odd man there who I had to pepper spray to keep away from Noah." Rachel said, frowning. "He was very insistent on keeping him there at the home and pushed Mike a few times, once or twice to the front lawn. Puck, meanwhile, emptied his stomach content onto the floor. So we took him to Mike's house. We would have told you but Puck was very insistent that we didn't."

Mike nodded, "The whole way in the car he was muttering, 'Don't tell Finn,' and 'He'll have a chick flick moment.'" Finn frowned, trying to figure out what Puck meant. Well, Puck was always calling him a girl so that wasn't a new one but why wouldn't he want Finn to know? And what wouldn't he want Finn to know?

"Can I come see him after glee?" Finn asked Mike. "See if he's alright."

Mike nodded. "Sure."

Rachel looked up at Finn, a small frown puckering her eyebrows together. "Will he be okay Finn?"

Finn shrugged. "I don't know."

~*~

By Glee club, Finn, Mike and Matt had found a pretty good cover story for Puck being sick and telling Shue he'd be there the next day.

This made everyone in the room frown for different reasons. Rachel, because of the fact she hated lying, Kurt and Mercedes because both of their gossip radars were going off, Santana, Brittany and Artie because they had all watched Puck run past that morning, Quinn because she was wondering why Finn was lying for Puck and Tina because they had both seen Puck that morning.

Earlier...

Tina had been standing outside of Puck's locker, hoping he'd show up so she could ask him about what Artie was like in the morning. She hadn't been able to sit outside that morning because her mother was awake and she didn't want her seeing Tina talking to some guy with a mohawk.

So she waited, just outside his locker to ask him what Artie was doing that morning, seeing as he hardly ever talked to her anymore. It hurt really badly that ever since she told him about faking her disability that the only times he had looked at or spoken to her where in glee when he had to.

She was snapped out of her thoughts as she saw Puck stumbling down the hall, away from Finn and holding a clear bottle of something Tina was almost one-hundred-percent sure was alcohol. She stepped forward and placed her hand on his arm, trying to catch his attention. "Puck?" she said. "Are you alright?" He stopped and stared at her incredulously as if he'd never seen her before in his life.

"You..." Puck squinted, looking up at the ceiling and then back to Tina. "You need to go, find Artie and make out with him. Just do it, okay? Okay." He nodded and pushed Tina out of the way before continuing to walk down the hall. Tina looked back to see Finn walking away, hand in hand with Quinn and then looked back up to Puck to see him continuing to stumble. Then she looked across the hall to where she felt two eyes staring at her through thick rimmed glasses.

Tina blushed profusely as she saw Artie staring at her, his mouth slightly agape and a stunned expression on his features. Tina was about to say something when Artie exclaimed, "Was Puck drunk?"

Tina's whole face changed and she frowned at Artie, crossing her arms over her chest. "You are an idiot Artie Abrams." She spun on her heel and walked away from him.

Present...

Finn sat in his usual spot next to Quinn and the other two boys sat up the back beside Santana and Brittany. "Okay then we'll just have to continue without him for today." Mr Shuester said with a small frown on his face. He was also sure he'd seen Puck's truck in the parking lot that morning as he looked out his office window (whilst getting ready for the school day because he still didn't have a place to live) but it didn't matter. He'd figure out what was happening sooner or later.

Just as he was about to explain about how they were just going to do some hardcore practice over the next two weeks until sectionals, Finn's phone went off with some ridiculous ringtone which was stating just what sort of man Finn was. Quinn's eyes popped out of her face and Finn hurriedly tried to get it before it continued. He quickly stopped the ringing then looked at everyone in the room. "Sorry... It's Puck. He set his own ringtone, not me."

Mr Shue crossed his arms and raised his eyebrow. "I thought Puck was sick."

"He is." Finn said, opening up the message. "See?"

[Puck20]: Can u pick Isla up from school? After Glee? Take her to yours? Be there later to pick her up l8r. Feelin crap.

"Isla is his sister." Finn explained.

"Puck has a sister?" Quinn asked.

Rachel looked up at Quinn, both her eyebrows raised. "Even I knew that and him and I aren't friends."

"Yeah, but you two hooked up." Mercedes reminded her.

At this Quinn turned the brightest red and sunk into her seat. Everyone thought it was because Quinn had been his sort of friend for how many years now but she had no idea he had a sister. No one knew that it was because she felt ashamed that she had done more than hook up with Puck and didn't know that minor detail in his life.

"Anyways..." Mr Shuester continued and for the rest of the afternoon they all practiced until they were sweating and it was time to leave.

Finn, Matt and Mike made a small huddle after practice, whispering furiously to one another and Rachel just stood by waiting. "What's up with them?" Brittany asked, tilting her head to the side as she went to stand by Rachel.

Rachel sighed, "They have a predicament on their hands."

Brittany's eyes widened and she looked to Rachel. "Is it contagious?"

Rachel looked up at Brittany, trying to figure out if the blonde girl was joking or not. From the deadly serious look on her face Rachel assumed she wasn't. "No Brittany, it is not contagious."

After inspecting her own hands Brittany nodded. "Good." And then she walked off, still inspecting her own hands just in case Rachel was wrong. Brittany didn't think she was lying but she knew that virus's could transform and become deadlier because her dad was a doctor and had told her.

Santana looked at Rachel, one eyebrow jutting up. "Great Berry. Now I'm going to have to spend an hour convincing her that a predicament isn't infectious." The look Santana was giving Rachel was a scowl but a joking one. "I had other plans for my afternoon."

"Sorry." Rachel said, giving a small smile.

"You'll keep," was all Santana said after following Brittany out.

It was decided that Matt would pick up Isla with his sister, take them back to his house and look after them while Mike and Finn would go and find out what was wrong with Puck. What they didn't count on was the Rachel Berry factor.

~*~

For a while, his sleep was restless. He woke up with a fever at one point and could smell something rank but he just turned over and went back to sleep. His dreams were filled with angry men and crying little girls. Quinn's pissed off face then her gentle one. Finn staring at him, trying to understand then furiously angry with him. Then there were all the other faces, of people from school and especially those of glee club, staring at him as if they hated him. His sister's face, tearing up as he spun around in circles, more confused than ever before.

But as he spun around, the world turning colours of blue, purple and red around him (oddly enough the colours of the slushies they sold at the 7/11) one face stood in front of him keeping him stable. It was the face of Rachel Berry. And it was perfectly still with no sadness and no anger. Just that gentle smile she sometimes gave when her bottom lip was slightly puckered. And she was sad but she was trying to put up a brave front. And the face was just for him.

He calmed, the angriness and depression calming around him and just concentrated on her face. He was calmed straight into a black sleep.

He woke up once, at around three-thirty. It occurred to him he needed to pick his sister up from school when he saw the bedside clock flashing the digital numbers. He reached into his back pocket and typed in a message.

[Puck20]: Can u pick Isla up from school? After Glee? Take her to yours? Be there later to pick her up l8r. Feelin crap.

[QBFinn]: Fine. Ur an idiot. I'll c u l8r... sick my ass. Smirnoff in the morning?

Puck groaned and rolled over, falling back to sleep quickly.

When he did wake up fully and finally, it was to a cool towel pressed against his head and gentle fingers wiping away the excess water that spilt over his eyes. He groaned and pushed the fingers and the person away as he tilted his head over the side of the bed and emptied his guts.

AN: I know this is going slow but I kind of wanted to put everything into perspective first... Reviews kind of make me happy and I'm depressed so like... make me happy?

:)

Oh and to TheFemaleWinchester (aka Taylah) can you like, call me? Seriously, this is the only way I've been able to communicate to you lately... STOP SNOGGING YOUR BOYFRIEND!! (Hi Damien)

LoL... Sisters ;) And I'm the older one... pfft.