He saw his daughter every once in a while. Shelby lived in Chicago, teaching music lessons to some little kids. He was sure Rachel didn't know of that, but maybe if he ever saw her again he'd tell her. Beth was ten now and she was crazy as hell, he attributed it to himself. He'd contacted Shelby often in high school and then when he'd moved to Chicago, he'd struck up a casual friendship with the woman. Seeing Beth was natural and he loved is daughter. It was good because it made him feel like less of a shithead.
Puck's relationship with Layla ended soon after he saw Rachel for the first time since high school. He could lie to himself and say that the end was imminent and he had known that before, but the truth was that he'd moaned Rachel while he and Layla were having sex. The next day he came home from the law firm and Layla and Baya's stuff was gone, the bookshelves in the apartment were stripped bare of any hint that there had been a woman and a little girl living there.
He went to see Beth that weekend, he took her to the Lincoln Park Zoo like they did every once in a while. She told him she wanted to see Aladdin and he told her he'd work his magic and get her there. She also told him she wanted to meet her real mom. He told her he wasn't sure if he could get her there, but he'd try. She hugged him goodbye and, for the first time in a while, Puck cried on the drive back to his apartment.
Rachel knew that it had been Puck she'd seen, and she tried to deny it, but the first time Santana called her she shouted his name into the phone in a random outburst.
"What?" Santana had laughed, "Puck? As in Noah Puckerman? Are you fucking him Berry?"
"No! He lives here, and works at this pizza place and I saw him and he saw me," she said, sounding frightened.
"Oh no, he's gonna get you!" Santana laughed.
"Shut up! I kinda wanna see him again," Rachel admitted, sipping from the wine glass that sat on the bedside table of her hotel room.
"Then go back to that pizza place and demand he take you out!" Santana was always encouraging Rachel's relationships.
"Maybe…" Rachel said.
The conversation continued on for a few minutes but ended when Santana got a call from Brittany. Rachel was used to Brittany taking precedence over her so she forgave Santana's quick ending phone calls. Besides, she was getting drowsy. Four glasses of wine do that to a person. Tomorrow Rachel would look for an apartment, and go get pizza.
Puck called McKinley that night, hoping to find if the alumni association had a number for Quinn Fabray; they didn't. He could call Finn or someone, but he didn't keep in contact with them for a reason. Plus, he was not interested in reopening those doors. Rachel was the only person he'd ever consider letting back in, because she'd actually been a part of his life.
He thought back to senior year, after Rachel and Finn had broken up for the fourth time ("This time for real!" Rachel had shouted, it had been.)
"So Berry, I was thinking, since Finn is a douche and all…you should come to prom with me," Puck said as he and Rachel sat in her bedroom, his guitar posed in his hands.
"Noah, that is not the proper way to ask a girl to go to a formal dance," Rachel responded, standing up from her bed and looking out the window at the warm, Ohio spring day, "let's get back to rehearsing."
The pair sat in Glee club, next to each other as they had since Sectionals. They did not have a place aside from each other. They were not best friends, that was true, but Puck was the only one Rachel had beside her. Her life had not depended on friends before, but after the killer break up with Finn, Rachel had needed a little bit of reassurance in her life. Puck smiled at Rachel before club as Mr. Schuester came into the room, looking straight to Puck.
"Everyone, Puck has something he wants to say," he spoke up and Rachel watched as Puck stood up and walked out in front of everyone.
"Okay, so I know I'm a badass but my mom would kill me if I didn't go to prom. So here I am, begging for Berry to please go to prom with me cause I'll die without her," he said, though no one could quite tell if he was kidding or not. "And on that note, I have a song to sing with Berry, if she'll have me."
"Well maybe if you called me Rachel…" she trailed off and stood up, "of course I'll always perform, even with you Noah." Rachel called him by his nickname, the one only she called him, and that was an indication of her saying yes to him.
Prom had been the best. And then graduation had been the last day he'd seen anyone. He hadn't even gone to parties, just up and left Lima for Chicago. Early admission got him into summer classes and he was on a fast track to graduation. He had called Shelby the first day in Chicago and she'd agreed to let him see the two year old. It had come natural between the two and Puck was a staple in his daughter's life.
Rachel wandered around Chicago, dressed well and looking for an apartment. This realtor had helped her a bit and she'd found somewhere she liked, at least she thought so. It was within walking distance of where she performed, practiced, and where her cast mates lived. It was perfect. Oh, and it didn't hurt that that pizza place was a mere three blocks north.
She signed a lease that day, why hesitate?, and moved her belongings from the hotel that afternoon. Pizza was definitely in order that night. So she went to the pizza place and waited in the line to get in. She adjusted her blouse (red v-neck) and hoped that Noah would recognize her and talk to her, because she needed him to approach her.
She was seated and told that Puck would be over in just a minute. She laughed to herself, knowing that many restaurants would deem it unprofessional to have the name Puck, but this restaurant did not mind.
When Puck saw her, his mind flashed back to prom and he knew he was going to be thinking impure thoughts all night.
The music pulsated through the floor of the McKinley High School gymnasium floor. Junior prom was finally here and the kids had been excited for weeks. From across the gym, Puck watched Rachel. Her dark red dress was low, showing off the cleavage that Puck was sure even Rachel did not know existed. It gripped her curves and flowed to the floor, the only thing keeping it from touching the floor were the heels Rachel wore. Puck's mind had been imagining how her legs looked with those heels, how she would look in just those heels. He'd had to think of something else just to cool his mind down.
Puck's eyes followed Rachel's every movement all night. He was obedient as her date and had done all of the required date things. It was loud in the gym, how cheap was McKinley? They had their prom in the gym on a Friday night, with a cheap ass DJ and shit for refreshments. Rachel had been bitter about prom all week, upon finding out that it was in fact going to be held at the school rather than one of the hotels in town. Puck undid his tie, the one Rachel had forced him to wear, and leaned back against the gym wall. Finn leaned to the right of him, Sam on the left. Their dates had miraculously become friends in the past few weeks and now they all watched the three girls dance their butts off.
"Jesus," Puck muttered to himself as he watched Rachel grind up against Quinn and Santana, wondering why they were so sexy together. Though he had not thought of Quinn nor Santana as sexy lately, tonight they were all beautiful.
Rachel laughed with the girls she now considered to be her friends. As strange as it was, she actually liked the fact that Quinn was dating Finn again, and she thought Santana and Sam worked well together. They were Fuinn and Samtana, and Puckleberry was perfect. Fighting in Glee club had come down to a minimum, but that played large part into their victory at Regionals. Though they had not won Nationals, they had made a big splash and everyone had begun to get along better, even those who had formerly fought over those who were together.
Turning around slightly, Rachel caught Puck's stare, it was something she had only seen a few times before. It was, dare she say, lustful. Rachel bit her lip seductively, winked at Puck, and turned back to the girls.
"Alright guys, that's it, I'm over this dance. I am gonna steal Rachel and get out of here," Puck said, pushing himself off the wall. He gave Sam and Finn fist bumps and walked towards Rachel, his mind set on the prize. He reached Rachel and wrapped his arms around her tiny waist, picking her up and hoisting her over his shoulder.
"PUCKERMAN PUT ME DOWN!" she squealed loudly, though he pretended to not be able to hear it, and he carried her out of the gym. The hallway outside the gym was full of so called chaperones, though none of them were really responsive to Rachel Berry being carried out of the school.
Once in the parking lot, Puck slid Rachel down his front and let her feet rest against the black asphalt next to his car. Rachel adjusted her dress, making sure it didn't touch the ground. "That was very rude of you Noah, I was in the middle of dancing with my friends," Rachel said.
Puck smiled at how Rachel said dancing with her friends, she giggled slightly at the word friends. It had amazed her to even have friends now and so she'd been excited about it. Puck leaned against Rachel, pushing her against the side of his car. He had washed it that day, so he hoped she wouldn't put up much of a fight. "You were killing me, dancing with them," Puck admitted, leaning closer to the petite girl, running his hand along her side gently.
"Stop it, Noah," Rachel said, her eyes closing as she set her head back against the cool glass of the window, the curls of her hair pushing flat.
"Stop what?" he said quietly, continuing rubbing her side.
"Let's go home?" she suggested, feeling Noah's fingers brush her legs. Rachel used all of her effort to push Puck from her and he gave her a look, but leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips.
That red blouse was so similar to her dress, he couldn't stop replaying the rest of that night. She had called him Puck that night when he'd taken her virginity, yet then mumbled Noah into his neck as she came down from her high. But then he'd left a week later and never seen her again; he was upset that he'd ruined her and left. He felt like he had something to fix.
"Hi, Rach," he said and smiled a crooked grin at her.
"Noah! How are you?" she grinned, faking surprise.
"I'm pretty good, how are you?" he asked her.
"I'm awesome, just moved into my new apartment and thought pizza sounded great," Rachel loved this, seeing him again.
Puck served her the whole night, buttering her up with extra breadsticks and recommending the best pasta dish for her dinner. He'd given her all she wanted and then by the end of the night, he'd received quite a big tip.
"Come see me again," he said to her, a smile on his face.
Rachel stood and placed a kiss on his cheek. She handed him a ten dollar bill with her phone number wrapped in it. "Call me, let's catch up," she smiled at him and left the restaurant.
She tipped well and still knew how to drive him mad. He really had missed her.