Arrrrrrrgh... In class... Stop reading over my shoulder Dan, these are not notes! But I dare you to use them in the exams... (I'm going to leave that in there for the funzies...)
Countless lovers under cover of the street
You know that I could use somebody
A week went by from the night of the hospital to when Mike once again saw Brittany. Well, no that was a lie. He had seen her. Walking through McKinley and at Glee. But other people had always been around. He had just finished up football practice and she had been staring at the noticeboard for something close to two hours, trying to spot the difference. He mentally rolled his eyes at whoever left the thing there. Brittany could spend days on 'spot the difference' games.
He stared at her for half a minute before he decided he'd help her. If he didn't, he would bet his own life that her parents would have to put out a missing persons report again.
"Hey Britt?" he said, walking towards her. "Why haven't you gone home yet?"
Brittany looked up a little confused then smiled. "I'm trying to spot the difference. I've only found one so far. See? This tree is bigger than this one."
Mike looked at the two pictures and noticed whoever cut the clipping out from the newspaper had cut a small amount of the top off of one and not the other. "Do you want help?" he asked.
Brittany frowned but still stared at the picture. "You're mad at me."
"You cheated on me, Britt." he muttered, looking at the picture and spotting the first difference of the five. "Here. This dog has a spot, this one doesn't. How many differences?"
"Five. And we have two." Brittany turned away from the picture for a second and frowned at Mike. "I didn't know we were dating, Mike. We were just having sex."
He stared at the picture blankly then saw one of the flowers was pink whilst the other was yellow. He pointed to it. "There. See the difference?"
"No, I don't. What's the difference between sex and dating?"
"Not, that..." he sighed the directed her back to the picture. "Look at the flowers. And there's another. The bird is missing a wing."
"Oh." she said looking at the picture. "One more then."
Mike now watched her and bit his lip. There were three lines between her eyebrows when she scrunched them up and her lips were pressed together and a little pronounced when she was thinking this hard. Sometimes when she thought too hard she would scrunch the roots of her hair between her fingertips and mutter the word, 'Ow' under her breath.
"Sex is sex. You can have sex without dating someone and you can date someone without having sex but when you date someone there's feelings involved Britt. Feelings, of love and..."
"You love me?" she said, purely surprised.
Mike flinched. "Yes... No... I mean, I love you as a friend and I could have really loved you as more if... If you hadn't cheated."
"But I didn't cheat!" she exclaimed. "I wouldn't have. Santana said..."
"Santana lied to you." he said clearly.
Brittany shook her head. "No. Santana would never lie to me..."
"She did it because she wanted sex." he deadpanned. "She likes having sex with you. She always has, always will. That's all Britt."
Brittany frowned. "No, she loves me. She always says that she loves me but because we just have sex, we're not dating... Mike, I'm confused."
Mike scratched his head and didn't know what to say. On one hand, he didn't want to hate Brittany. It was Brittany. Hating her was like... hating rainbows or sunshine. You just couldn't without being considered crazy and a possible serial killer. He did, however hate Santana. Even though he did believe she did truly love Brittany, he couldn't help but be angry at her for taking advantage of Brittany. She really had no idea when it came to a lot of things and telling her that what she was doing was okay, was just wrong.
The worst part was, Santana convinced Mike to ask Brittany out.
"Look. Don't be confused. Just, ask Santana if you two are dating or not... Because I'm dating Annabelle now." he added the last part reluctantly then turned back to the picture. "There, this handbag has spots, this one doesn't."
Brittany saw the spots then clapped her hands together. "You found them all! Except for the tree. I found that."
Mike nodded and smiled, "Yeah you did."
She took both of his hands and grinned, "Mike, I really am happy for you and Annabelle. I mean, I'm upset because I really would have liked to date you but that's okay. We had great sex." she reached out and patted his arm with a smile. Then something caught her eye to her left and she turned back to the spot the difference and frowned. "There's another one! In this one the picnic blanket has diagonal stripes and in this one they're up and down." Mike turned and looked at the picture only to realise he'd missed the most obvious difference. "But that means there's six."
When Brittany got her confused look he felt bad. "The tree was a bonus mistake. When they're pinned up on the board, they sometimes have bonus mistakes."
"Wow, I never knew that." she exclaimed then turned back. "Are there anymore?"
"No. There's only ever one bonus." Mike smiled sadly and watched as Brittany picked up her bag off the ground and turned towards him.
"Well I better go home now. Wow, my mom is going to be worried." she said, looking at the time. "She bought me a digital watch so I wouldn't get confused anymore by the second hand." Brittany leant up and kissed his cheek then smiled her contagious smile and walked down the hall, whistling.
For a moment, Mike wished that everyone could live in Brittany land.
It seemed like an amazingly happy place.
It wasn't Carol's hinting or Quinn's eye rolling at the mention of the topic or even Rachel's stern lectures that got Puck to man up and talk to his mother. No, actually it was Finn.
That surprised Puck to a certain degree. Quite honestly, he didn't know Finn could produce the brains to say what he said. He didn't know the guy had it in him underneath the goofy jock behaviour.
"Puck?" Finn said as the two boys tried to sleep in their shared room. "If like... There was some sort of body switch or universal bang that made you, me and me, you... And like, you were having a kid..." Gut churning... "And I was sleeping on your pull out... Wait, do you even have a pull out bed?"
"Get to the point, Hudson."
"Well, anyway... If our rolls were completely one hundred percent reverse, down to me having a little sister named Isla, wouldn't you be telling me to go at least talk to my mom without my dad around to figure out why she's doing what she is doing?"
Puck sat up in the dark and a second later Finn sat up too, hanging his arms over his knees and with his lips curled in a contemplative look.
Puck honestly didn't know what to say and tried to think of the situation in the complete reverse. Once he had, he laid back in bed and nodded. "Can you drive me after school tomorrow? Rach doesn't like when I drive angry and I have this bad feeling I'm going to leave there angry."
"I can do that."
So, afterschool the boys dropped Quinn and Isla off at home and drove to Puck's house. No one told Isla where they were going. No one wanted to make her sad. Everyone knew how much she was missing her mother but at the same time, everyone knowing what they knew wouldn't let her go back to the house where his father was staying.
Now Finn was parked outside of the house with Puck in the passenger's seat, staring at the door. "Dude, I can't go in."
"Yes, you can."
"No. No I can't." Puck said firmly.
Finn sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "Fine." Then he reached over Puck, unlocked the door, unbuckled his friend's seatbelt and shoved him out ungraciously onto the pavement. Puck grunted, grabbing his side then glared at Finn.
"What the fuck?" he shouted.
Finn smiled as he closed the door and locked in. Puck could only watch as Finn called someone off his mobile and then realise in horror that Finn had called his mom. The blinds out the front of the house opened and Puck saw his mom nod then come out of the house in her pink robe and slippers. She hung up the phone and looked directly at Puck then walked inside, leaving the door open.
Puck sighed and got up off the sidewalk. He gave Finn the one finger salute then followed his mother into the house. He briefly paused at the door, looking at the fixed doorway. It was good the doorway was fixed. He'd lied the weeks before when he said why he kept it jammed. Honestly, he just didn't know how to fix it. But something about the doorway being fixed by his father creeped him out. It made it seem more real that he was back in his mother's life, fixing her problems.
It made it more real there was change.
He closed the door behind him and went into his living room and sat across from his mother. They both looked away from each other and sat in silence until Deborah sighed and said, "It's good you didn't bring your sister. It's good."
"I don't know why I'm here." he admitted. "I mean, you made it clear. You don't want me and Isles living here..."
"No, I don't." she said quickly. "I don't. Your father..."
"Not my father."
"Fine. Josef, then is going through a lot and I don't think it would be healthy for either of you to be around him."
Puck looked up at his mother and frowned, "Is it healthy for you to be around him?"
Deborah hesitated for a second then nodded. "I'm fine Noah. Trust me, I am fine."
Puck chose to believe her for now then said, "So I guess I'm here to just check up on you?"
"Yes. And... And I was going to ask if one day every week, you, myself and Isla can meet up. I miss Isla and you. I really do."
Bitingly, Puck said, 'You could see your daughter everyday if you threw Josef out..."
"I could, but I can't." her face softened. "One day, Noah you will understand."
"Yeah. Okay, fine." Puck decided then and there he wasn't going to be angry with his mother anymore. Instead he was going to find a way to move on from the badness in his life. He wanted to not have anything to worry about. He wanted to have a good relationship with his mom and friends. Not fighting and agreeing to this new arrangement was a step in the right direction.
"Okay." he said. "We can do that."
And maybe things were going to get better.
Like all of his mornings that had become days where Puck regretted waking up, this one started beautifully. McKinley had a strike in the morning so they only had to show up half day. He had stayed the night at Rachel's because her dad's were away again and she didn't want to stay there alone.
He woke up cheerful and happy and swung by Finn's to pick him, his little sister and Quinn up. Brittany, Santana, Matt, Mike and Daniela ended up joining them for breakfast before school. (Daniela still hated Rachel's guts for taking Puck away from her, but she at least tried talking to her. Matt told her it was to suss out the competition and nothing more than that. Rachel thought it was kind of cute in an intimidating sort of way).
Actually, the rest of Glee ended up joining them, including Kurt's boyfriend who happened to be captain of the basketball team at Carmel High. No one was quiet sure how it happened, nor did anyone know when it happened.
It somehow just did.
"You got yourself a jock?" Mike scoffed, not meaning to when they met him. "Wait... no, that came out wrong."
"Don't acted so surprised that one of you beefed up jocks can be homosexual." Kurt said, raising his nose slightly as he always did when making a point. "I mean, I'm a jock and look at me."
"Yeah, you got Finn worrying about his facial cleansing regime." Puck muttered through pancakes.
Everyone laughed. The guys name was Dylan and after a few glares and stiff words, Puck figured he approved. (What? He was protective of the girls. Kurt, in all definitions was one of the girls). Puck and Rachel took Isla and Daniela to school before a quick make out session and driving back to the diner where they'd left their friends and found Karofsky and Marcia had joined them.
Marcia was just getting introductions when Senior Boy (as Finn and Puck liked to call him) called up Mercedes and asked if he could join. He did and the group became sixteen. No one minded one bit though, because the morning seemed to be going great.
Seemed to be. Everything seemed to be normal and happy and good.
Puck swears, he was going to kill whichever douche in the school who decided to make them attend that assembly.
They had all arrived at eleven to school and were about to go off to their respective classes when there was an announcement over the speaker system that they were to go to the basketball courts for a special assembly. He let go of Rachel's hand as they walked in with her but they had somehow lost the rest of Glee who either split up around the place or clung together. No one spread rumours about the two of them anymore and they found that they could hang out at least with no one thinking anything else but they were Gleeks.
He saw Finn, Quinn, Brittany and Santana a few isles down and to his left and Matt and Mike sitting two rows behind them. Artie was down the bottom with Tina sitting beside him. Mercedes and Kurt were on the opposite side of the courts with Senior Boy who surprisingly let the two gossip without much thought to it.
Rachel sat behind him and leant down and whispered into his ear, "Do you know what's going on?"
"No idea, babe." he leant his arms back over his chair and squeezed her calf affectionately.
There was a projector screen up and the projector set up on the far side of the room. People were all chatting curiously until some guy with a head-mic came in and started talking to them. When he said, "I'm here to talk to you all about sex." There was a collective groan.
"You're a virgin." Someone called out and Puck had an idea it was Cusperberg.*
The guy actually laughed and took it well. He was soon going into a lecture about the pros and cons on sex and instead of telling them sex was this horrible thing they should all abstain from, he told them it was a great thing that they should do, but not take lightly.
Rachel was shifting behind him uncomfortably, especially when the guy said that girls first times are usually undesirable. Puck couldn't stand it any long so looked up at her and gave her a pointed look. She looked down at him and rolled her eyes. "Sorry." she mouthed. He shrugged his shoulders and looked back at the Sex Ed. guy.
His mobile vibrated in his pocket a minute later.
[*RB*]: You do know, I'm not upset with you about what happened last week on Sunday night, right?
Puck smirked at the message and knew that Rachel didn't have to specify what night it was because he would have known what she was talking about.
[Puck20]: I know. I love you.
Puck sent the message then actually read what he said and smacked his head. He hadn't told Rachel he loved her yet. He did, but he didn't love her to the point to vocalise it. He, and half the school, heard her drop her mobile two minutes later behind him and he tried to act as though he didn't notice.
No one said anything to her but Puck heard Rachel pick up her phone and then furiously text back behind him.
[*RB*]: Of course you would tell me this in the most surprising and so hopelessly unromantic manner that it runs with my emotions and makes me feel like it is really actually romantic manner... What have you done to me, Noah?
[Puck20]: Want me to make it more unromantic? :S I love you. It's easy I guess... Do you love me?
Now he didn't know what was wrong with him. Was he asking for his heart to be broken.
[*RB*]: Hang around and you might find out... ;)
Was that a yes or a no? Puck then saw the winky face and thought that Rachel wouldn't tell him something so important to her over text. He probably shouldn't have said it over text. He made a promise to himself to tell her in person later because he knew for sure that Rachel would say it back and for the next half an hour, he felt happy.
Then he didn't.
Because the guy said something that just about everybody in Glee was praying no one would ever say. Not in a million years. "You see, the rumour that sex is this absolutely horrible thing and that it will kill your life is totally untrue. It's kind of like the hot tub pregnancy myth."
Puck froze in front of Rachel.
Quinn froze under the arm of Finn.
Finn froze, his whole face contorted in confusion.
Mercedes, Kurt Tina, Artie, Santana, Mike and Matt froze, all desperately seeking each others eyes across the basketball courts.
Brittany froze because everyone else suddenly looked very tense.
Actually, the only person who was relaxed by this was Rachel.
Finn raised the arm that wasn't wrapped around Quinn hesitantly. The guy looked Finn's way and smiled. "A question?"
"Y-Yeah..." he said nervously. "What do you mean hot tub pregnancy myth?"
"No." Puck murmured under his breath and Rachel looked at Puck, wondering what he was talking about. Puck instantly saw his world crashing around him as the guy laughed.
"Well a lot of people think a girl can get pregnant if a man ejaculates in a hot tub while the girl is inside. Actually, the sperm can't swim through your trunks all to well and the heat kills them. Unless there's direct insertion, you can't impregnate the girl."
Finn became stiff and then looked down at Quinn. The guy seemed to realise there was something wrong, as did a few of the students who were staring at Finn curiously. "Are you serious?" Finn was facing Quinn as he asked but the guy answered in the affirmative. "H-How could..." Finn got up and stumbled back over Brittany's feet. He almost fell back but caught himself. "I... I don't want to..." Finn turned and headed straight for the stairs of the bleachers, running down them and then out the courts.
Quinn just sat there, looking shocked and ashamed, tears running silently down her face. Puck felt torn as he watched Santana and Brittany comfort Quinn instantly and Matt and Mike look up at him, disapprovingly.
He looked down and saw Tina and Artie staring up at him and then across to see Kurt gaping. When his eyes caught Mercedes', she at least had the decency to look down in shame. He'd known for a while that everyone knew, but he still hadn't confronted Mercedes about it. Rachel didn't notice any of this but her jaw had slackened as she put half the pieces together.
It's over... Was all Puck could think.
The guy who was guiding this realised he'd stepped into a massive pile of shit and knocked it over. Puck felt his heart quicken as he watched the needle sink into the perfect bubble he created. The hall was dismissed and before the teachers could say anything, the whole of Glee got up, including Mr Schue and Miss Pillsbury, to go find Finn.
"Rach, take Quinn to the choir room." Puck muttered quietly and got up before she could object. He and Mr Schue looked everywhere for Finn but couldn't find him. They eventually headed back to the choir room where Matt and Mike were waiting for them. "Any sign?" Mike asked.
Puck just shook his head and walked into the choir room, Mr Schue behind him. Rachel was sitting next to Quinn, holding the blonde girl as she cried. Kurt looked alarmed by this but was being held back from saying anything by Mercedes and Tina's stern looks.
Puck felt Kurt's alarm because he knew any moment now everything could be destroyed. Everything he held holy could collapse around him like a badly built house. He closed his eyes and walked up to Quinn and Rachel. He glared at Santana who realised what he wanted and went and took over the shoulder-crying from Rachel. Rachel looked confused but when Puck took her hand and tugged her into a standing position she found a more comforting place in his arms.
Puck felt like crying. Like, bawling more than what he had done when his dad had come back. More than when his dad left. He just wanted to hold onto Rachel forever, but he knew he was finally at the end of the hourglass. He was sick of the 'end of the world' terms too, but it was all too true. Rachel now had to know.
Puck was about to open his mouth and ask to talk to her, alone, when Finn stormed into the choir room. "Who?" Finn demanded. "That's all I want to know. Who was it?"
Quinn looked up at Finn like a deer caught in headlights. She opened her mouth once, twice, three times. She couldn't say a thing.
It wasn't the desired way to break it to Rachel but Finn looked like he was about to go mental, his hair flying everywhere and his eyes a bloodshot red like he'd been crying our tears of vinegar. He slowly let go of Rachel and pushed her aside to where Mike was standing. Mike grabbed Rachel around the wrist, knowing what would happen and pulled her towards him. Needless to say Rachel was more confused than ever.
Finn saw Puck remove himself away from the rest of Glee club and stand in front of Quinn, protectively. "Don't say it..." Finn half begged, half growled. "Don't..."
"I'm sorry." Was all Puck ended up saying and Finn charged for Puck with all of his might.
No one could stop him. Finn grabbed Puck and punched him so hard, he fell back. Santana only just managed to pull Quinn away and the back of Puck's head slammed on the edge of the steps before lolling and falling to the ground.
Realization had dawned on Rachel and she looked between Finn, Quinn and Puck before turning into Mike and crying against his shirt. Mike wanted to break up the fight, but he couldn't with Rachel in his arms. It ended up being Mr Schue and Matt, trying to pull Finn off of Puck who was just taking the beating, only defending his stomach and chest with his arms. His face he left open and he did protect his balls, because he was a man.
Eventually, Mr Schue and Matt got Finn off and Brittany and Tina rushed over to see how badly Puck's face was screwed up. The back of his head was throbbing from cracking it on the step but he got himself up to see Finn being restrained.
"Finn, calm down." Mr Schue tried.
"Stay away from me!" Finn yelled. "I want you out of my house. Both of you! I want you both out by the time I get home. I... I trusted you. I..." Finn couldn't say anymore. He yanked out of Matt and Mr Schue's grasps and then turned on his heel to leave the room. He stopped at the doorway and then looked at Rachel. "I have no freaking idea what you see in a jerk like him." And then he stormed out.
Rachel buried her face deeper into Mike's shirt and kept sobbing. Puck pushed back the throbbing and tried getting up. Santana and Tina helped him up. "Rach?" he croaked out.
Rachel didn't turn around and Mike squeezed her a bit to get her attention. "Rachel, please..."
"You lied." Rachel cried, muffled by Mike's shirt. "You said nothing happened."
"I know but..." Puck had no explanation.
Rachel pushed away from Mike and ran outside. Puck shoved himself off the floor, knowing he had to follow the one good thing he had left in his life. "Rachel!" he called out, running outside.
She hadn't run far, just into the lockers outside, collapsing against them. She wasn't even collapsed with her back against them. Her face was pressed against them and she had half slid down them. People were starting to fill up the hallways as Puck tried to get to her. "Rachel..."
"No." she cried.
"Please, Rachel."
She sniffed and looked up at him. "Stay away from me Noah."
"Please, listen to me."
"No!" Rachel yelled, standing up again.
Puck stood up straight too, his face and head throbbing. "Rach, listen to me!"
"No!" she pushed him to the choir room door. "No, no, no!"
"Please?" he tried grabbing her but she kept moving out of his grip.
"No!" Rachel kept pushing him away. "What did you think would happen, Noah? That I would just be happy you're having a child with another woman? The same woman that kept the first boys heart away from me?"
"Rachel." he pleaded, tears forming behind his own eyes, even though he didn't want to cry. "She wanted nothing to do with me..."
"You could've told me!" Tears poured down her face quicker than he could explain.
So he didn't explain. He could, exactly. Puck just stepped forward and pulled her into his arms, gripping her tightly. Rachel pushed him away, trying to push him away, trying to get rid of him.
The more she pushed him, the tighter he held her until she gave up and fell limp against him, sobbing and sobbing about the boy she'd lost whilst standing in his arms.
Miss Pillsbury had eventually gotten them out of the hallway where a crowd had formed and now they were sitting in separate corners of the choir room. Mike was looking disapprovingly at Santana (who had secretly been banking on this but didn't think it would turn out quite so horrible... or that she'd be quite so attached) as he held onto Rachel who was still crying. Silently crying, but all the same crying.
They had gotten the school nurse to come to them and Santana sat with Puck while he got ice packs and bruise creams applied to his face. He looked miserable and was looking everywhere but Rachel who refused to be near him since she came back inside. Everyone else was surrounding Quinn who was about to pass out from the emotional exhaustion. Secretly, they were wondering how good this stress could be for the pregnancy, even Rachel who would never admit it.
"Can you take me home?" Rachel whispered to Mike. "Please? I just... I want to go home."
Puck finally looked over from the other side of the room. "I'll take you."
"No, Puck." Rachel shook her head. "I don't want you to take me home. Or pick me up tomorrow for that matter." more tears poured down her face. "Because apparently I'm the only one in this room who didn't know about the true parentage of the baby. Which obviously means I wasn't important enough to know..." her voice cracked so Mike just held her tighter.
"Puck didn't tell us Rach." Mike muttered.
"How... how did you all know?" Quinn asked, and even though Mrs Schue and Miss Pillsbury were trying not to look interested, they were far too interested for their own good.
Five faces all looked at Mercedes who looked at Puck. Puck sighed, "I told Mercedes by accident Quinn. And then the phone tree was put in use."
"If..." Rachel was trying to figure something out. "If all of you knew... and you knew I was dating Puck then..."
Puck felt his heart break because he knew what she was thinking. What made it worse was the fact that Brittany opened her mouth. "We knew before you started dating Puck."
Rachel's breath hitched, "You mean, you all knew when you were trying to get Noah and myself to date?"
"It was the stupidest plan ever Rach." Matt said. "And we didn't want to do it. Mike and me."
"Oh please, you helped." Santana spat.
"No we didn't." Mike growled. "We refused to go along with your stupid idea once we found out."
"But you didn't say anything, did you?" Tina bit back.
Artie looked at Puck. "I just did it because I thought you two would be happier together."
Rachel stood up. "But you knew too. And you all knew what I'd do when I found out!"
Quinn looked at Santana. "Why did you do it? I know why I did... because Rachel took Puck away. But why'd you do it? You're possessive over Puck and always got crazily jealous if he dated anyone but you."
Santana looked up heavenward and then back to the ground. "Because Rachel and Finn's gaga eyes and Puck's constant staring at you were the only things slowly breaking us apart. But as soon as Rachel and Puck were occupied with each other, we all became so much closer and stronger individually too. I knew Puck would only be better once he had Rachel and I knew you'd only come to terms with things once Puck stopped hassling you. Now that the truth is out, Finn and Rachel will get together and Puck and you... well I don't know. But I always thought I'd get Puck back."
"Wrong assumption." Puck growled, standing up angrily.
"Puck, sit down." Mr Schue warned him and hesitantly, Puck fell back into his seat.
Rachel sniffed, feeling more hurt and betrayed than ever. She pulled herself away from Mike and got up, going to the door. "Rachel..." Mike got up too. "I'll take you home."
"No." Rachel shook her head. "I don't want help from any of you."
Miss Pillsbury stepped forward, "How about I take you home Rachel?"
Rachel shook her head. "You probably knew too." and then she pushed past Miss Pillsbury heading out the door.
Mike was the one who went and followed her, promising to take her home to Puck and not to touch her. Puck felt himself become dizzy and he really wanted to puke up his breakfast so he figured that as long as Quinn was alright, he'd go home. But then he tried to stand and the pounding in his head became too much and as he stood up straight, his knees gave way and he was collapsed on his side. "I need to go home." he said, pushing himself off the floor as four pairs of hands tried to life him up. He then winced and realised he needed to correct his words. "I need to go to Finn's and collect my stuff." He saw Mr Schue, Matt, Mercedes and Santana, all helping him stand straight. Quinn started crying again in the background and no one was too sure what to do.
"I can get your stuff." Brittany said to her. "You can stay with me."
Quinn nodded through her tears and thanked Brittany.
"You shouldn't be driving, White Boy." Mercedes said. "Not with that bump on your 'hawk."
Puck agreed to have Kurt drive him to Finn's house because he was the only other person who could drive stick who he trusted to drive his truck. Brittany drove in her car so she could take Kurt home and they both helped Puck clear out his stuff from Finn's room and even pack the trundle bed away. (Because Finn was still confused about his right and his left). Brittany had packed all of Isla's room into a few bags then packed Quinn's things away and Puck was glad Mrs Hudson was at work.
Right before he left, Puck sat at the desk and, even though he thought it was a total pussy move, wrote three letters. Kurt had gone and helped Brittany scrounge around for anything else that belonged to Puck, like the amplifier and covers they found plus a sleeping bag that Puck forgot he had lent to Finn and had his name written on it. It was a pretty sad thing to take, but Puck was so busy writing the letters, he didn't realise that Kurt and Brittany had packed it into his truck.
He had taken two pain killers and was feeling kind of better, or at least better enough to drive. He put all of Quinn's things into Brittany's car, thanked them and then went and parked outside Rachel's house, not daring to go in but feeling better being closer to her.
He had left two of the letters at the Hudson's and the third was for Rachel, which he slipped into her mailbox before silently driving away.
When Finn finally got home, he could say he was physically and mentally exhausted. He didn't think it was possible to be this tired, but he realised it was and he could be more tired still. Because when he walked into his bedroom, he saw the sonogram, still on his mirror. He saw a letter tucked underneath it, squashed between the mirror and the frame. And he saw Puck's bed was gone, packed away as if it had never been there.
In one day he'd lost his child, the love of his life and his best friend in the entire world. Finn snatched the sonogram and letter and fell onto his bed, unable to read or look at the things in his hands, but clutching them close like they were his security blanket.
It was dark when his mum got home and she called out, "Finn! Noah! Isla! Quinn! I'm home!"
His light hadn't been turned on yet and the door to Isla and Quinn's room was closed so Mrs Hudson had simply assumed they'd had an early night. But when she walked into her room, she saw a letter on her bed and she became a little confused.
Finn had a feeling about what Puck had done, so just waited and waited seeing as he couldn't completely fall asleep, no matter how hard he tried.
"Finn? Finn!" his mother came rushing in, letter clutched in her hand and flicked on the light. "Finn, what is this? Where are Noah and Isla gone? What happened?"
Finn didn't turned over but kept his face turned away from his mother. "Read it." Finn croaked out. "Out loud."
Carol was scared so did as her son said. "Dear Mrs H. Sorry for hassling you this past six weeks. I'm sorry for what I did to your son. Thank you for taking care of Isla and myself. Love you, Puck. Finn, what happened?"
Finn still didn't turn over but stuck his hand up in the air with the sonogram and letter. He let his mum take the letter but clutched onto the sonogram. "Out loud." he said again and Mrs Hudson obliged.
"Dear Finn. Sorry, that sounds like crap. The whole dear thing. I mean, you probably hate my guts. I'm not surprised. I'm not sorry..." Mrs Hudson sobbed as her eyes glazed over the next part but she kept talking. "I'm not sorry that the baby is mine. I love that girl more than you could imagine. The baby, not Quinn. I am sorry though, that she was never yours. I am sorry I took that away from you. I think you would've been the... the better father out of us two, but I want my chance and I'm sorry I hurt you to do it. I'm sorry you found out this way. I'm sorry if this held you back from doing what you really wanted. I should never have done that to you because you are my best friend and you've done everything for me. I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for you.
"I wish I could say that I regret what Quinn and I did, but I can't. I don't love Quinn and she doesn't love me. She was always yours, which is why she never wanted to tell anybody about what happened between us. Because she was ashamed and afraid you'd leave her. She loves you so much. It is weird. The only person who could match the love she feels for you is probably me with the love I feel for Rachel. I know this sounds like soppy love boat bull but, it's true. If you can't ever forgive me, I can't say I'd be okay with it but I'd never be okay if you never forgave Quinn. Or Rachel. Because she knew nothing about this. In fact, I want you to take care of her. It's stupid of me to ask for favours but you're still the only one that I trust. So please, don't let her be more hurt than she needs to be. Don't turn your back on her because she really didn't have anything to do with all of this.
"I packed Isla up too because wherever I go, she goes. I'm sorry again, and if you can try to forgive me, I'd be forever happy. Because I'd never take her away from you. Quinn or the baby. You can still be involved in this. It's just up to you. From Puck."
Carol waited. Waited for her son to say something. Anything. "Finn?" she whispered.
Finn turned over and pulled his covers over himself.
* This actually happened at my high school when they decided to bring in someone to talk to us about sex ed... Surprisingly, it wasn't me...
Review Replies:
Penguin0491: Yes! She knows the truth! But maybe not in the way you were hoping... :S
i-taylorlautner: Yep. She found out :) AND you're lucky you found it yesterday :P
XritaskeeterhatersX: Thanks!
Kkcnelson2002: Thank you so much... Yeah, massive year... I wish I'd shared it with you guys on FF though... :(
Tomfeltonlover1991: (man, Tom Felton is a babe... but anyways...) I have replied to you already but I reply again to say... UPDATED!