AN: I'm glad my muse didn't abandon me so I could get this out without a super huge break between chapters. Especially since I left that horrid cliffhanger (I love cliffhangers). This is the final chapter and it all comes down to this! Thanks for taking this ride with me even when updates were few and far between. I have no idea what's next for me but hopefully it'll be something soon.

Oh and I have to credit Queer as Folk for some of the dialogue (some taken verbatim) towards the end. As I was writing I remembered the scene and how much Season 5 Brian and Justin related to this story so I wanted to use the words created by the writers of that amazing show. If you've seen the show you'll get it, if not, it'll just be cute LOL

R&R and I hope you guys enjoy!

Sheldon and Benjamin came back to the waiting group, both with a teary smile on their face. Puck wasn't sure what exactly the sick joke was. He'd spent the last long thirty seconds trying to find a place in his head that could comprehend the fact that Rachel was gone. He knew he could live (barely) if they weren't together, but he wasn't sure if Rachel not being in the world at all was an option he was willing to explore. He was in such a haze that he didn't hear Sheldon say anything but 'she's going to be okay' but even then he wasn't sure if he heard him properly or if it was just his head lying to him. When Puck felt a hand on his shoulder he looked up to see Sheldon standing above him as the older man said 'I'd never lie to you about this son' as if Puck had been thinking out loud and everything that had been coiled up so tightly inside Puck let go and it was for the first time since it all began that he felt he could breath again. Puck didn't ask questions for fear of shaking the balance, but he figured that was why Sheldon had been crying before. Because the relief in knowing Rachel was all right was overwhelming.

Puck swallowed hard before he stood up and walked quickly out the front door of the hospital into the cold storm that had slowed down, but was still continuing outside. He'd grown up a lot since high school, and as much as he'd become a very little less uncomfortable with showing emotions, he refused to cry in front of the group in there. If he did, they would have gathered around him, hugged him, and told him how happy they were but that would just make things worse. He had just thought he had lost Rachel and he had to process this himself. It was freezing outside and his jacket was sitting on a chair in the waiting room, but outside, hidden as much as he could on the side of the building, Puck cried.

He didn't know how long he was out there but he knew that he should go inside because he was freezing but he wasn't sure what came next when he went back in there. When he saw Sheldon Berry coming towards him, with his jacket, he knew that he was his favorite of the Daddies Berry. It was Sheldon who accepted his relationship with Rachel first, who had convinced Benjamin that despite the fact that Rachel and Puck had a rocky history in high school, Rachel was a grown woman by the time they decided to give this a real try. It was also Sheldon who called Puck after Rachel appeared back in Lima to find out exactly what was going on. It was Sheldon who told Puck that all things that were meant to be, will find their way to be. Needless to say, Sheldon was his number one fan.

"You should go back inside," Sheldon said as he approached Puck and handed him his jacket.

"Thanks," Puck said slipping into the warmth of his coat, "I will. Just not sure I'm ready.

"It was a bump on the head. It knocked her out for a little while. But you know how I know she's going to be okay?"

Puck just looked at Sheldon and shrugged.

"Because the first things she asked about were the kids, then Will, then Finn and Brittany, and then you."

"Me? I wasn't even there."

"But you've always been with her."

Puck didn't know how to respond to that. So he stayed quiet and watched the snow fall from the sky.

"I can take you to see her. If that's what you want?" Puck nodded and followed Sheldon into the hospital, past his friends, to the receptionist who seemed to finally give him the password he needed to go down the hallway he'd watched people go down and come out of several times today to room 2354 and before he entered, Sheldon left him with a 'be gentle, be true'.

Puck took a deep breath and entered the room and the feeling in his chest was something he hadn't felt in so long.: a need to be with Rachel, not sexually, but just to be with her, to love her. He felt a small bit of it the night before, but this was so overpowering. He cleared his throat and Rachel turned her attention towards him.

"Noah," she said her voice soft and it was obvious that she had been crying. Her hair was messy and there was a bandage taped to across her forehead.

Puck took a step closer to her. He could see a bruise on her arm and he wanted to be angry at someone but he couldn't be angry at weather, or even the bus driver.

"You're okay?" he asked needing to hear it from her as he walked closer to the bed she sat up in.

He reached the bed and extended his hand to ghost along the side of Rachel's face, afraid to actually touch her as if doing so would break or hurt her in some way. He let his hand fall back to his side after that.

"I'll be fine Noah. It's just a little bump. I'm just glad that this wasn't as bad as I could have been."

"I was freaking out," he admitted.

"My dads told me everyone was waiting outside. I didn't mean to pull everyone away from Will."

"Don't worry about that. As long as you're okay. That's all that matters."

"Finn and Brittany, they're all right too?"

Puck nodded and he wasn't sure if it was instinct or just need but he reached and grabbed on to Rachel's hand. She looked up at him, her brown eyes looking for an answer to an unasked question. They had been close the night before but the conflict that had driven them apart hadn't been addressed and both of them knew it needed to be. Despite the uncertainty, Rachel wrapped her fingers around Puck's hand in response, never taking her eyes off the man in front of her.

"I miss you," Puck said.

"I miss you too," Rachel responds.

"I want us to be together,"

"Noah," Rachel

"I know this isn't the best time for this. But it's true. I've been sitting in New York fucking miserable while you've been here and I get you were helping Will but you belong in New York. You belong with me."

"Noah, there isn't anything in New York for me."

"Yes there is," he said, "there's me."

"Noah my," Rachel paused, "my conditions haven't changed."

"So marry me."

"What? Noah?"

"Marry me."

"But you were so against marriage."

"But I'm more against not being with you. And if that's what it takes, I'll do it. And whatever else I have to do." "Don't do this for me. I don't want you to go against what you believe in just to make me happy."

"In my previous statement I used 'I' a whole lot. Hate to burst your bubble baby, but this isn't about you. It's about me. Me being with you."

"You're just doing this because of the accident. Because you freaked out. You're going to wake up tomorrow and the shock is going to wear off and you're going to regret it and then you're going to regret me."

"Never."

"Noah-"

"Just say yes," Puck said, "Just say yes and we can go get Finn to be ordained online or something."

"I'm not allowing Finn to marry us. And I-I can't say yes. At least not now. I-I have to think about this. This day has already been traumatic enough."

"Me asking you to marry you has been traumatic?"

"Noah you know what I mean. I just really haven't processed everything yet. Give me some time. Please?" Rachel said squeezing Puck's hand.

Puck nodded, "I'm sure Quinn's going to want to get in here soon."

"Can you go check on Will for me? If she doesn't know, don't tell Emma about any of this. She's got enough to worry about."

"Yeah sure," Puck said squeezing Rachel's hand once before reluctantly letting go and heading towards the door.

"Noah," Rachel said stopping Puck just before he crossed the threshold.

"Yeah," he said turning back to Rachel.

"Even though I need time to think, I love you, "she confessed, "I mean, I still do."

Puck smiled, "Me too baby. Me too," he said before exiting.

Rachel spent three days practically hiding from Puck inside Quinn's house. It wasn't that she was avoiding Puck per se but she had a lot of questions to answer, her own and his, and if she was at home, he could find her easily. And she told her dads to go back to work the day after the accident so there was nothing to stop him from coming in. It's not that she thought he would stalk her like that; she just didn't want to take any risks. That and she really needed to talk it through this with Quinn.

When Rachel told Quinn that Puck had finally asked her to marry him, Quinn shouted 'thank god!' then looked thoroughly disappointed when Rachel told her that she hadn't given Puck an answer. The blonde sat her friend down on her couch and gave it to her straight.

"Look," Quinn said, "accident or not, he loves you. I didn't tell him why he needed to come back to Lima; he just assumed it was for you. This is what you've wanted. You didn't have this, so you left New York. You've got it, so go."

"He's not going to move back here. There's nothing for me in New York."

"That's crap Rachel and you know it. You belong in New York. Yes it was a blast having you here but you don't belong here. So you will go back and you will be the star you're supposed to be and you're going to marry Puck and give my unborn baby a best friend."

"You're pregnant?"

"No, but I want to be and Sam got a job in New Jersey so we're going to be a lot closer and I kind of want everything to be perfect."

"What about New Directions? What about Will? I don't know if I can make this choice, I can't just abandon them."

"Finish the school year; we're moving in the beginning of August."

"Quinn, I don't know."

"OH MY GOD!" Quinn shouted in frustration, "Rachel. Do you love him?"

"Yes."

"Do you want to marry him?"

"Yes."

"Then what the hell is the problem?"

"I don't know."

"Okay, that's it," Quinn said picking up her phone off of the coffee table, "I can't just sit back anymore. I was sympathetic in the beginning but now you two are driving me nuts."

"Who are you calling?" Rachel said as she watched Quinn sit up from the couch and put distance between them.

"Puck. He's going to come over here and the two of you can tell him yes or I swear, I'm going to, Puck, hello-" Quinn said interrupting her when Puck answered the phone, "I need you to get over here immediately. We're specializing in emergencies here in Lima now so yes get over here quickly."

Puck showed up fifteen minutes later. When Quinn answered the door she took his car keys from his hand looked at both of them and said, "Neither of you and leaving this house until I'm going to be in a damn wedding that isn't my own." before heading out the door and apparently getting in her car and driving who knows where.

"I think I made her angry," Rachel said standing.

"You mean she's not always like that?" Puck said laughing and he was grateful when Rachel laughed with him.

"Her and Sam are moving to New Jersey."

"That's a lot closer to New York than Lima."

"Do you really want to marry me?"

"Yes," Puck said without hesitation before he reached into the pocket and pulled out a tiny black box, "I got this. Well actually it was Nana Connie's but I went and got it from my mom. You should have seen the look on her face."

"What changed your mind?"

"I found a good reason to do it."

"And what was that?"

"To prove to the person I love how much I love them."

"You risked telling your mother about this, not knowing what my answer would be."

"I'm taking a chance on love."

"Then you mean it."

"I've never meant anything more."

Rachel observed the man in front of her, the man she loved more than she ever expected she was capable. She took a step closer and grabbed hold of the front of his jacket, "okay"

"Okay?"

"Let's do this,"

"Say it,"

"Yes,"

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, yes, I'll marry you," Rachel said pulling herself closer and she smiled when she felt Puck's hands on her waist, pulling her closer, "I'll marry you."

Their lips pressed together for the first time in months sending warm electricity through both of them. Puck wanted nothing more than to make up for the lost time between the two but Rachel pushed back just slightly and reminded him that they were in Quinn's house and it would be terribly rude. Puck sighed in defeat but holding her this close was the next best thing. So he opened the ring box to show the beautiful ring that had belonged to his Nana who longed for nothing more than for Puck to continue the line of Puckermans with a beautiful Jewish wife. Puck took the ring out of the box and reached for Rachel's left hand.

"Are you ready for this?" he asked.

"Bring it," Rachel said as Puck slipped the ring onto her finger.

Rachel and Puck got married near Schoonover Lake that July. There was no need for a long engagement and Rachel had (surprisingly) settled on a small wedding. There were exactly twenty people (counting the Rabbi) in attendance, and that included both Will and Emma. As if it were some kind of omen an hour after Rachel had agreed to marry Puck, and just as Quinn was returning with their keys, Emma called and despite everything, Will had woken up.

Just before school let out for the summer, New Direction directed by both Rachel and Will (once he was feeling better) made their way to Chicago for Nationals and came home with a first place trophy.

Quinn, of course, was the maid of honor, the rest of the original glee girls Rachel's bridesmaids, along with Puck's sister. The original glee guys, Puck's groomsman. It was like having all of their family up there with them Rachel wouldn't have had it any other way. Rachel walked down the aisle, both fathers at her sides, all eyes fixed on her but she met only one pair. She smiled looking into Puck's eyes seeing the future for the first time in a long time. She was getting married and when she and Puck returned to New York, leaving New Directions in Will's very capable hands, Rachel had an audition in front of a very well respected producer for a part in the Broadway revival of Evita (one of her contacts actually paid off).

'I Do's' were said, kisses exchanged, smiles and tears from everyone, but one thing was certain at the end of the day. When it all broke down, they realized that it wasn't really broken; it just needed a different perspective. And even though it took a lot of sadness and tears, both Puck and Rachel felt that the way they saw the future now made them stronger, together and as individuals, and it was going to take a lot more to destroy them again.

AN: For those who were worried, I usually always have a happy ending. Thanks for reading!