Much thanks to Shadowkitty22 for Betaing this and making sure everything made sense. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Still don't own anything, except my mistakes.
All of them can hardly believe that they're sitting in the audience for Rachel's final performance in the top 3. The last performance before the finale next week. Just a few days ago, they were watching Mike competing for a chance at the mirror ball trophy, only to be sent home the next night. It wasn't bad for his first run through the show so they ended up going out and getting completely trashed to celebrate how far he got.
Puck is mostly surprised that they're singing full length songs now, but if he had to guess it'd probably be because of the producers trying to get them used to singing more than two songs for their concert coming up. And now it's a commercial break. He's slouching in his seat and barely registers that everyone is talking around him, ready to see Rachel up on stage again and talking about how she nailed her producer's choice song that they revealed earlier this week. The song was announced at the LA Temptation field where all her fans and family got to come see her. Puck was happy to see her again but she avoided him most of the time. Rachel probably had her reasoning, he assumes, but that doesn't mean it hurt any less.
The last song that all the contestant's are performing tonight, had to be from a previous American Idol winner, so they're all curious to what she picked. She's not even on stage getting ready, so he's guessing she's backstage so they'll all be shocked.
"Are you glad the finale is next week?" Quinn asks from beside him as he sits between her and Nathan.
"Yeah," he answers smoothly.
For the most part, all of them had accepted that Quinn screwed up and it was all Holly's doing. Even Rachel's dads once she explained everything. The person that would be the hardest to convince would be the woman who's about to take the stage. Apparently, the blonde already had a plan to tackle that obstacle when the time came. Puck didn't want to ask any questions, frankly, he just didn't care until it actually happened.
"Rachel will listen to you Quinn, don't worry. Our baby girl has always listened to reasoning." Allen looks over and smiles at her after she's done talking then looks at Puck. "She'll listen to you too, son, so wipe that scowl off your face."
Puck scowls even harder at the older man before giving the stage his full attention as they come back from the commercial break. A clip of Rachel is playing, her explaining her song choice. He honestly doesn't hear any of it because he's too busy staring at how amazing she looks.
Ryan announces Rachel and her song choice, which he honestly doesn't even recognize, but as the music starts, he instantly sits up in his chair. There's stairs leading down to the stage in the center and she starts to march down them almost in time with the beat. Her hair is curly and slightly unruly, the way it looks right after sex, a white tank top that he can definitely see her black bra through, a black leather jacket, short as hell black leather shorts and black leather boots running up her calves. She's got hot smoky eyes and Puck curses under his breath as his pants tighten. This woman is going to be the death of him. And he swears that her dads are freaking out beside him by the way all the guys have started to cheer in this place.
As soon as her boots hit the floor of the stage, she raises the microphone to sing the opening lines of Adam Lambert's "If I Had You." The choice of mostly all leather in her outfit seems appropriate for the line in the song "the right amount of leather."But Rachel intentionally keeps her eyes away from the section that's seating her ex-boyfriend, because she knows that when she does, he'll understand how hurt she was by the entire ordeal before she left for the show. Now isn't really the time to think about it all though, even her choice of clothes which she might be regretting a little bit now, while she's walking up to the microphone stand and setting it on there with a little more force than necessary. Rachel taps the heel of her right foot along with the beat on the snare drum then closes her eyes momentarily. When the chorus comes up, she still ignores the pair of hazel eyes that she can feel burning into her skin.
Puck watches as she sings, her tiny hands gripping the microphone stand tightly while she sings the chorus. She might as well take the damn thing and throw it through his heart because he feels like complete shit. Once she's done with the chorus and the music moves into the next verse, he watches as she moves across to the other half of the stage, completely owning it and singing to the people there. The music slows down to broken down lyrical sentences and she moves across until she's standing right in front of them. His eyes slowly meet hers.
Rachel moves until she's standing right in front of Puck. Their friends and her dads look between the two as the music slows down even more. She crosses her right ankle in front of her left, standing almost innocently as she holds the microphone in both of her hands.
That would be the only thing I'd ever need
Yeah if I had you,
Then money, fame and fortune never could compete
If I had you,
As she sings the last line and the music picks back up, he watches as she moves towards the center of the stage and moves down in front of the judges to the small wall behind them, singing to the rest of the crowd. She's completely into performing after their little 'moment' they shared.
He really can't wait until this show is over so they can sit down and have a real conversation.
When she finishes, he can basically sum up the judges critiques of her as the best performance yet that she's ever done on the show. Rachel smiles brightly and blows a kiss out to the crowd before moving off stage. Puck stands and stretches his arms above him before leaving with everyone. He's either got a day or a week to finish up everything he needs to do before Rachel gets back. Mostly a lot of work so that he can have the free time in order to fix things with her.
The next morning Rachel wakes up and stretches her body out on her bed. It's just her and Blaine in the apartment now, even though he had the option of taking one of the other empty ones down the hall from this one. It just felt better knowing that they could walk outside of their rooms and talk to each other if they really wanted to. Jesse is all by himself in one, savoring that he's alone so he can practice his song or style his hair perfectly. Half the time she has to wait for either of them to stop messing with their hair long enough for her to squeeze in a shower.
Throwing her comforter off and swinging her legs over to the floor, Rachel stretches again and moves to the closet to pack her suitcase with the exception of a week's worth of clothes just in case she gets sent home tonight. The TV is playing quietly down the hall while she packs and her cell phone is currently on silent on the nightstand. The nerves are filling every inch of her body slowly as she thinks about what will be happening tonight. Every elimination she's been nervous but this is the big one. The final two. Honestly, every time she thinks about how far she's gotten, Rachel can hardly believe it. It feels amazing to have the support that she does.
As Puck leaves his office at the company he works for, he can't help but grin at how his meeting went. His friend, who originally sent him the script, is more than happy to direct it since the script caught Puck's attention. Although he'll have all of his premiere shit coming up, the planning is the most exciting part to him. Watching auditions instead of being in them, coming up with a schedule, and drawing the story board. It's all invigorating no matter how much he might say in a few months that he can't stand it. Every project can get frustrating. But this is the exact thing he needs to help him get out of this funk he's been since Rachel has been gone. God, he loves her more than he could ever explain to anyone (and considering he's never felt like this before, he knows she's his endgame) but these past few months have been absolutely draining on him. Sleeping is still an issue, although, not as much as it used to be.
When he gets to his building, Puck marches straight to Finn's door instead of his own. This is business and his most important partner in everything he does, is his agent. The man is sitting on the couch, watching entertainment news and sipping a beer.
"Isn't it a bit early for that?"
Finn smiles lopsidedly and shakes his head. "Whatever man, you'd be doing the same thing. Not like I have anything to do until the show tonight."
Puck smiles and sits down in the armchair, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and stares at the table.
"What's going on?" He sits his beer down on the table and looks over at his best friend.
"I found a project to work on. But I want to focus all my energy on it, so don't plan anything too extreme for me."
"Really?" Finn perks up and grabs the bottle before leaning back into the couch. He mutes the TV and sets the remote further down on another cushion. "That's great."
"I think it'll help you know?" He doesn't do emotions. But that's been changing a lot lately since Rachel came into his life. Puck looks up as Finn nods.
"Totally get it man," he sighs and picks at the label on his bottle.
"I've just been in a rut." Puck leans back in the chair and runs a hand down his face. There's a little more scruff there than he usually likes that he needs to shave off. "I need to feel inspired or some shit and this script has totally done that for me."
"No, dude, that's awesome. It's good that you want to work on something since you've finished filming."
"I feel like such a pussy. Needing to be inspired?" Puck scoffs and tilts his head back. He hates feeling like this. This feeling hasn't really inhabited his body since his dad left, but sports and figuring out his major in college pushed him through that. All he wants is to feel good again. Even if Rachel may not want to get back together with him, which he really doesn't want nor to think about, this would be a step in the right direction.
"You just need something positive to happen. We get it. And none of us will be pissed at you."
Puck looks over at his friend and smirks. "Wanna hear about the script?"
"Uh, yeah?" Finn smiles and kicks up his feet on the coffee table, leaning back into the couch.
Down the hall, Sarah opens the fridge and stares at its contents. She sighs and makes a mental note to go to the grocery store. Her phone starts to wail from inside her bedroom, so the younger Puckerman slams the door shut before jogging down the hallway. It's an unknown number, but calls get made to her like that every day, so she doesn't think anything of it.
"Hello?"
"Hey sweetheart," Connor's voice fills her ear.
Sitting on the edge of her bed, she tries to keep her tears away. "Connor?"
"Yeah, it's me."
"You sound tired," she breathes out and lies down on her side.
He sighs over the phone. "It's pretty early here, but it's also been a rough couple of weeks. I'm sorry I couldn't call until now. Trying to get back into shape and all."
"No, it's fine. Your mom called and told me how you were. But you're doing better? Everyone's been so worried about you."
"I've been better. I'll be heading back to my platoon soon." Connor smiles and runs a hand over his outgrown hair. It feels good to hear Sarah's voice again.
Sarah bites her lip and closes her eyes. "Are you serious?"
"Yes. I thought it'd be better if I told you myself."
She sits up and walks towards the front door, but leans against the wall for a second. "I miss you."
"I miss you too," Connor whispers. He clears his throat, "So tell me, how's Rachel doing on the show? And Mike?" He settles back into his bed and sets his arm behind his neck to use as a pillow.
"Mike got eliminated this week, third place though, and we find out if Rachel makes it to the final two tonight or not. And we got to see her earlier this week for her hometown visit. They liked it when she sang rock songs so they picked an Aerosmith song for her. Steven Tyler gave her a standing ovation. Can you believe it?"
"That's amazing. I can't believe I'm missing fucking everything." Connor sighs noisily and curses under his breath. "Sorry, I just feel useless in this bed."
"You're recovering, so don't worry about it. Would you like to talk to my brother? I think he's at Finn's place."
"That'd be great."
Sarah pushes herself off the wall and walks down to Finn's front door before pushing in. She sees her brother laughing and smiles to herself. "There's someone that would like to speak to you Noah."
"If it's ma, tell her that I'm still trying to talk to Rachel. I love how she's more of a priority than her own son is," he mumbles to himself.
"It's a certain Marine that's gotten attached to you, for whatever reason." She hands him the phone and flops down next to Finn.
"Hawthorne?" Puck smirks into the phone before standing up and moving into the kitchen. "How the fuck are you, man?"
"A lot better than I was. Ready to get back to work man."
"You are some sort of dedicated."
Connor laughs. "Kind of my job, Puckerman. But I love it."
"Yeah, yeah." He leans against the counter and stares down at the ground. "Did you get Sarah's care packages? I know she's been sending them like crazy whenever she gets the chance. Better yet, did she sign my fucking name in them too?"
"Yeah, she signed your name. I don't know why though."
"Hey, I paid for some of that shit too," Puck states defensively.
"Anyways, I sent the stuff that I couldn't really use to the guys in my platoon. They needed hand warmers and chapstick more than I do."
"That's fine and completely understandable." Puck leans and looks out at his sister laughing along with Finn at something on the TV. "So, what kind of injuries did you have?"
Connor knew this was coming. "One skimmed my leg but mostly my Kevlar caught the others."
"But you're in the hospital. There's something you're not telling me."
"You can't tell Sarah."
"Of course I wouldn't. You think I want her freaking out about it? She's fucking worried but shit, you're my bro. You don't want me to tell your shit, I won't."
He takes a deep breath and moves the arm from underneath his neck to over his eyes. "One got my left shoulder, hit a blood vessel so I was bleeding out pretty bad. But they got it patched up and whatever, slowly working it so that I can move it again and get back to Afghanistan. Another skimmed my right arm but it's just a flesh wound."
"Jesus," Puck mutters and leans back against the counter."
"Yeah, but anyways. How are you holdin' up?"
Puck laughs and runs a hand through his short hair. "Better. I'm working on something new, so I've got that going for me."
"Good to hear Puck. I, uh, got some letters from Rachel while I've been here." Puck grunts and tips his head back against a cabinet. "She's been saying she's ready to get back home."
"Did she say why?"
"Not directly. I think she just misses everyone. But fuck, I don't blame her. I miss everyone too."
"You'll both be back soon enough. Just suck my sister's face off in front of me."
Connor laughs loudly, "Yeah, alright Puckerman. Shit, I gotta go. Can you hand the phone back to Sarah?"
"Yep. Good to hear from you. We'll see you in a couple of months."
Puck hands the phone to Sarah and she waves at them before walking back to their apartment. He tips his head back while Finn watches TV, hoping to get a nap in before heading to the show to see Rachel.
All of them create a line in their row of seats, holding each other's hands while the three finalists are standing in the middle of the stage, waiting to find out who will be the first one to make it into the finale.
Nathan Berry holds his husband's hand tightly as the host talks about whatever he's going on about. He can hear his heartbeat in his ears, effectively tuning everything else out. Brittany's knee is bouncing up and down while she nervously chews on her lip, the blonde eyebrows furrowed as she stares up at the stage. Everyone's reaction is in one way or another similar to hers. Allen seems to be the most nervous though, biting his finger nail then moving on to another one once it gets too short.
"Would you stop that?" The heartbeats are now out of his ears while the sound of Brittany's tapping foot is louder.
"I'm sorry Honey. As much as I want to see her win this thing, I really just want to hug her. Can't you see how tense her shoulders are from here?"
He laughs lightly and pats the man's hand. "You got to see her earlier this week when they picked the song for her. And yes I can see it, but she'd be so happy. It's just one more week if she moves on."
"Then we'll be going back to New York. We've been here all this time, working from the apartment and we'll barely get any time with Rachel."
"But we got to see her perform in person, which is more important." Nathan smiles at the man next to him before looking up at the stage.
Rachel stands in between Blaine and Jesse as Ryan finally moves to announce the first person who will be in the final two. She smiles gently, trying to push away all of her nerves. Honestly, she doesn't know how the men on either side of her are holding it together so easily. The entire day they've just smiled and talked about random things while she's been trying to keep busy. Even Kurt ran away from her when she was sitting in hair and makeup, saying he can't afford wrinkles this young.
She can hear the little seal on the card being torn to her left and averts her eyes to the piece of paper sitting between the host's fingers. "After 85 million votes, the first person who will be moving on to the final two is…" he drawls out and pauses for dramatic effect, causing Rachel to try and not roll her eyes. "Rachel Berry!"
A little sigh of relief escapes her mouth as both Jesse and Blaine hug her tightly. Ryan hugs her next before directing her over to a pair of stools sitting on the right hand side of the stage. Rachel looks over at her family and friends, who are cheering very loudly, and blows them a kiss before wiping away a tear. She turns on the metal stool and looks over at the three men standing at center stage.
"Now, the person that will compete against Rachel in the top two is…" Ryan drawls out again. "Blaine Anderson!"
Rachel laughs as the man jumps up and down a little bit before shaking Jesse's hand and giving him a half hug. He moves over and she jumps up, hugging him tightly as they end the episode with their competitor singing his final song. Their arms are wrapped around each other's midsection before they clap and move over to hug him again.
Puck looks in the mirror as he redoes the knot in his tie while Kurt is standing against the bathroom wall, staring. "Will you stop fucking doing that?"
"Do you need help?" the smaller man asks.
He slams his hands down on the counter and counts to five so he won't yell. "I know how to do my tie. I just can't do it with you staring at me!" Puck regains his composure and goes back to the piece of fabric around his neck. "So, uh, how's Rachel doing?" He glances up and meets Kurt's eyes before reaching over and grabbing his vest.
"She's nervous. And she has been talking my ear off just to try and have something to do instead of pacing around. You know, she kept telling me random facts about musicals that I already know!" Kurt huffs and moves to stand next to the counter.
Puck laughs and thinks back to when Rachel would tell him random facts about whatever movie they were watching that she picked out at the time. "Sounds like the Rachel I know." Kurt's face softens as he smoothes the fabric over Puck's shoulder. "Has she said anything about me?"
"Not really, not since Valentine's Day at least."
"Do you know why she just, pulled away so suddenly?"
The shorter man hesitates before looking into Puck's hazel eyes. "I can't say."
"Why the fuck not?" Puck buttons up his vest and leans against the door frame.
"Girl code," Kurt says easily.
"You're a dude."
"Doesn't matter. I can't tell you and if she wants you to know, well, then she'll tell you herself." Kurt stands his ground and crosses his arms over his chest. "Now do you have all the brands memorized in case they ask you who you're wearing?"
"Yeah," Puck mumbles and moves out into the living room to grab his shoes.
Sarah looks up at the two men entering the room and smiles warmly. "Don't you look handsome."
"I know," both of them say at the same time before looking at each other.
Kurt raises an eyebrow before moving over and kissing Sarah's cheek. "You look lovely my darling, but now I must go see if Rachel is ready." He momentarily closes his eyes, inwardly berating himself before looking over at Puck, "I'll see you two later. Don't forget those designer names." The shorter man moves towards the door before looking at the younger Puckerman, "You too."
She blows him a kiss right before the door closes then looks to her brother. "Ready for tonight?"
"Not really."
"Why not?"
"What if Rachel doesn't win? I don't want to see her heartbroken." Puck knows what those big brown eyes look like when she's sad and he doesn't want to see that on stage, where millions of people will be watching.
"She's strong, Noah. It'll be fine. Maybe she'll come running into your arms for comfort."
Puck rolls his eyes and moves to put on his black shoes. "I highly doubt she'd come running to me. Maybe San or Britt. Or Nathan and Allen."
"Have some hope you pessimistic jerk." Sarah kisses his cheek then grabs her clutch. "Let's get going."
Rachel looks around and smiles at all the cameras on the red carpet for the finale tonight. Kurt picked out an amazing dress that's black lace with beige underneath then slicked back her hair into a tight pony tail. She feels beautiful and confident, considering what's going to happen tonight on the show. People are asking her all sorts of questions, but a bunch of girls screaming causes her to look to her left. Puck steps out of a car, followed by her friends and dads. They're all dressed in formal attire but she can't help but linger on how her ex-boyfriend looks. The smirk in place with his aviators perched on his nose, hands stuffed in his pockets. Her heart begins to beat furiously in her chest as she tries to tear her gaze away from him.
"Hey," Blaine shocks her and she turns around quickly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." His gaze moves over to where she was looking, just seconds before.
"It's fine. I shouldn't have been daydreaming."
"Oh? So now we've moved on to daydreaming about the hunky actor?"
"You are awful Blaine Anderson."
He shrugs and smiles. "I happen to be appreciative of both male and female bodies." Blaine sighs and puts his hands into his pockets. "Tonight everything changes."
"Are you nervous?" Rachel sputters, her eyebrows raised while she looks at him.
The man scoffs and turns to walk down the red carpet, towards the area where they want the both of them to pose with each other. "I haven't been nervous this entire time." Rachel sets a hand on her hip and stares at him pointedly before smiling at the cameras. "Maybe a little."
Rachel laughs and hugs Blaine tightly. "We'll be fine."
Puck walks down the carpet with Mike to his right and Finn to his left. The girls stopped with Rachel's dads to answer some questions. "Mr. Puckerman!" He turns and looks at a man who is waving his hand at them.
Finn hangs out behind them both and Puck moves his glasses to the top of his head. "Hey," he holds his hand out to shake with the reporter.
"So it's the big finale tonight. Who are you rooting for?"
Mike scoffs beside him, but let's his best friend answer. "Rachel, of course."
"Is it because she's your ex-girlfriend?" The man looks between the two and lands his gaze on Puck.
His jaw ticks before he smirks. "I'm supporting her because she's an amazing woman and singer. She's done amazing on the show so far. Her family, friends and I are extremely proud of how far she's gotten on the show along with all the support of the voters who have gotten her here. Rachel deserves it all."
"We've heard that you're in the starts of a new project. Can you tell us more about it?"
"I would love to, but at some other point in time. Tonight is Rachel's night and I'd rather not steal the spotlight from her. Thanks for your time."
Puck slaps the man's shoulder before moving down the red carpet again.
"She'll come back to you after she sees that interview," Mike says before the both of them stop to take a few pictures.
"What makes you say that?" He flips down his sunglasses as they wait for the girls, Finn and Rachel's dads to catch up.
"Think about everything you just said. Instead of promoting your new movie that you're producing, you said you didn't want to take the spotlight from her. That's love, man."
"I hope you're right, Chang. I hope you're right."
Brittany sits down in the seats that they've been sitting in all season long, gripping Mike's hand while swinging her legs back and forth, nervously. Even though her boyfriend didn't win the mirror ball trophy, she's extremely glad to have him back. Soon their little group will be back together again and the blonde can only hope that everything will be fine.
But now she's sitting there in a pretty dress, waiting to come back from a commercial break. So far it's only been an opening number and some previous American Idol contestants singing. They're getting ready for all of the top twelve guys to come out and perform a medley of some sort. She leans her head onto Mike's shoulder, nuzzling his neck.
"I'm just ready to know if Rach is gonna win or not."
"Not too much longer, Britt. We're about half way done with the show I think." Mike squeezes her hand tightly before looking back up at the stage.
The music starts up and the group of guys come out. Rachel watches from the wings of the stage as the guys dance around and act like a bunch of drunken guys who are at a karaoke bar. Except that they're much, much better. Jesse is currently center stage, singing his heart out even though he was so close to getting to the final two. Holly walks up next to her, a hand on her hip as she laughs at everyone on stage.
"They're all crazy," the blonde laughs out when Dave runs out onto the small wall behind the judges and finishes singing, then all the other men joining them too.
"Tom Jones suits them all though. And they're having so much fun."
"We kicked their asses when we performed our medley. We're much sexier than them. Plus, Lady Gaga owns Tom Jones." Holly shrugs and moves her gaze back out onto the stage.
Rachel laughs at Holly then looks back out as Blaine starts to sing the final song. All the men are doing the Carlton dance, then she searches the crowd until her eyes land on Brittany and Santana. The two of them are dancing in their dresses, making everyone around them laugh. Even Puck. He looks so happy, happier than when she saw him last week inside of the Temptation field. She looks back over when Blaine announces Tom Jones and the man walks down the stairs to center stage and finishes singing "It's Not Unusual" with Blaine with all of them singing back up as well.
Before she knows it, Rachel is standing in front of the judges, holding Blaine's hands in her own. She's sure that her hands are sweating but her competitor doesn't say anything about it, just smiles at her before looking to the judges then back to Ryan. All they want to know is who the winner is. And she's ready to go back to her comfy bed and sleep.
"We had the highest number of votes for this elimination, than in the entire history of American Idol, with a thousand votes separating the two." Rachel gasps and looks into Blaine's eyes. He laughs lightly then looks back at their host. "America, are you ready to see who your new American Idol is?" he shouts and watches as the crowd gets to their feet and cheer.
They squeeze each other's hands as he tears the seal off the envelope, pulling the piece of paper out. She can hear the deep breath he takes before pulling the microphone to his lips. "And your new American Idol is," he drawls out and looks from the camera to them, "Blaine Anderson!"
She instantly loses her poised stature but quickly smiles and hugs Blaine tightly. "Congratulations, you deserve it."
He kisses her temple and hugs her close. "Thank you Rachel, but you deserved it too."
Rachel holds him arms length away before everyone else comes over to hug Blaine, confetti falling all throughout the air. Soon enough he has to go away to sing his winning song as Rachel hangs out with everyone else, swaying to the lyrics and music filling up the theater. She looks over and meets Puck's eyes. His hands are tucked into his pocket as he stares at her instead of watching the winner walk out towards the crowd to his family. That's what she should be doing, but she's not. Instead, she's standing on the stage as the runner up and she doesn't even get to sing a last song.
Rachel smiles sadly before looking away and clapping as Blaine finishes his song.
The day that Rachel gets to come home, she's beyond ecstatic. Even though she'll still have to put her room back together from the way she left it. Her bags are packed from the apartment for the show and she's about to leave when she turns back and looks at the room she's spent the past weeks at. Blaine is already gone because of all the press he's having to do today. Rachel leaves and closes the door, moving to where her cab is waiting to take her back to her car. It's going to feel amazing to drive again after being chauffeured around.
After the brief drive home and blasting music in her car, Rachel stands in front of her front door. Taking a deep breath, she sticks in her key and slowly opens the it. There's nothing but silence in the condo as she walks in. She leaves the suitcase and her purse in the living room then notices that it's completely dark down the hallway to their rooms. Stopping in front of her door, she takes a deep breath and sets her hand on the door knob, twisting it until it opens. To say she's shocked that it's not a mess would be an understatement. The bed is pushed back against the wall where it was before and her dresser is now painted the teal color that she had picked out. Rachel opens up the drawers and sees that everything is perfectly placed to how she had it before. On top holds her pictures frames and other random objects that she had there too. The thing that she notices that should've been the focus of her eyes when first entering the room is sitting in the corner above her chair. A corner shelf with a DVD player and a small flat screen TV sitting on top with a vase of baby pink peonies next to it. Drapes are now on her windows along with the blinds that were there before that match her newly painted dresser. Tears are building up in her eyes before finally turning around and looking at the bed. There sits the fabric headboard that she was working on before Puck came to the apartment that day, with gold, silver, brown and blue flowers on it and a new beige quilt. She spots a note on the pillow then crawls onto the bed, laying on her stomach.
Rachel,
I know that you were wanting to do this yourself, but since you were gone away on your show, I figured I would do it for you. Hopefully you like everything. Happy Belated Valentine's Day Ray. I love you.
~Noah
She opens up the drawer on her nightstand and places the note inside before standing up to go retrieve her things from the living room. Her suitcase is now by her closet while she digs through her purse for the journal she's been using the past few months. Inside is filled with lyrics she's been writing, the accompaniments that she made for the songs that were done on the show. But now new words are coming to her mind while looking around her new room. The quiet isn't something she's used to anymore. Her life for the past few weeks have been chaotic and will go back to being that way until she starts her tour in the summer. Most importantly, she needs to talk to Will. She starts a small to do list in her margin while thinking of the music notes that she wants to write down.
After writing a few lines of lyrics, Rachel opens up her drawer and looks around for her LFL contract. The front door opens and closes quietly before she hears footsteps coming towards her door. She glances over and sees Puck leaning against the frame, looking at her with a pained expression and his arms crossed over his chest.
"Hi," Rachel says quietly. Puck nods his head and walks into the room then sits on the other side of the bed. "What are you doing here?"
"Everyone's busy working and I wanted to see how you were. Make sure you got home safe and sound or whatever."
"I'm fine." The petite brunette looks down at all the paper in front of her. "And you?"
"I'm alright," Puck says indifferently before leaning back against the headboard. "I'm really fucking proud of you."
"Second place isn't all that great," her voice still quiet as she plays with the pen in her hand.
"You beat hundreds of people. I think you'll get enough credit for making it that far. Plus you get to go on the tour, so that's fucking exciting right?"
She laughs and tucks a strand of hair behind her hear. "I also got a recording contract."
"No shit?" Puck looks over at her and grins.
Rachel nods and bites her lip before grabbing the notebook and setting it on her nightstand. She's not exactly ready to share any of that just yet.
"What's that?" He nods at the item she put away.
"It's just a bunch of songs that I've been working on. Maybe they'll make it onto my CD."
They both sit there quietly as she flips through her contract and Puck looks around the room he's spent so much time in for the majority of this year. He glances up at the TV and crosses his ankles. "What do you think of the room?"
"It's beautiful, Noah, thank you."
"I owed you. For all the shit I put you through while you were gone." He shrugs.
"No, you didn't," she gets cut off when he puts up his hand.
"Trust me, I want to talk about all of that but not on the day that you come home. There's just one thing I want to know."
Rachel turns so she's facing him and sets her hands in lap. Her eyes meet his hazel ones. They look so tired than how they're normally filled with mischief. "What do you need to know?"
"What the hell happened on Valentine's Day? I don't understand why you just suddenly pulled away after you told me you loved me too." Puck stands up and paces in front of her bed. Normally she's the one who acts all antsy, but this is completely new for her, with him. "I get that you had to think about yourself. Especially after everything that's gone down. But Connor is fine and he'll be home in a couple of months. No one's fighting anymore except for you and me."
"We're not fighting." Her eyes drop from his gaze from where he stopped at the end of her bed, looking at her with sad eyes. "I saw a picture of you, Brittany and Quinn at lunch that morning after I woke up and sent you that text. I thought that maybe you…"
"What?" Puck moves and sits directly in front of her. "I told you that I loved you, why would I change my mind? Especially within a few hours? Our director just wanted us to just be seen as friends out in public. She even has a plan to explain to you everything that happened and to apologize personally. I want to be with you."
She takes a deep breath and sighs. "We just need to work on being friends first. When we started to date, we never really started with that, we just jumped straight in."
"If that's what it takes then fine." Puck stands up and bends over to kiss her forehead, both of their eyes closing at the contact.
"Thank you Noah," Rachel says and looks up at him. "This is what's best for the both of us. For now at least." He's about to leave when she abruptly stands up. "Noah?"
"Yes?" Puck turns around and stares at her.
"Can you not tell anyone I was looking through that?" She motions over to her LFL contract sitting on the bed.
He nods and walks out of her room.
-(Mika)- Hey! So you're email still isn't showing up, but I'd be more than happy to help you. Try setting up an account then you can PM me.
-Rachel's fabric headboard/new bedspread: cdn . decorpad . com /photos/2008/05/14/39a561487727 . jpg
-Rachel's final performance song was If I Had You- Adam Lambert, and then of course Tom Jones- It's Not Unusual. All credit goes to them!