A/N: Kurt gets introduced (briefly) and the two original characters that are important are also here. Sorry for the wait but I got a new job and I've been super busy!

Puck sat down on the cold concrete of the sidewalk and bent his knees crossing his hands between them. His eyes darted to the boy sitting next to him. The guy looked thirteen and wore clothes twice his size and never looked anyone in the eyes. Puck took a cigarette from his jacket and lighted it up taking a few drags before deciding that it was time to break the silence.

"So, what happened this time, Jimmy?"

The boy, Jimmy, scowled at his old shoes and his hands closed painfully around his boney knees. "I ran away."

"That I can see." Puck stared at his burning cigarette trying to find the best way to get the boy to open up. In the last two years Puck had seen Jimmy almost every night. He had tried helping by getting the social services to take him away from his family, but the boy always found a way to escape. "When I was your age…"

Jimmy rolled his brown eyes. "Please, that again?"

Puck pushed him playfully. "I'm serious. I was a punk."

"I don't believe you."

"Alright." Puck threw away his cigarette and reached in his jacket for his wallet. He flipped it open and took out the small picture he always carried with him. Showing it to Jimmy, he said, "Look, I've got a Mohawk. That means troubles."

Jimmy pulled the small picture out of Puck's hand, his eyes widening. "Is that your kid?"

"Maybe."

"C'mon."

"I will tell you if you go back to the institute." Puck reached for the picture and secured it back in its place, hidden behind his badge so his eyes wouldn't fall on it by mistake and everything hurt a little less. "I'm serious. You can't keep running away. Those guys are there to help you."

"Pff." Jimmy huffed and turned away, burrowing in his jacket and pulling his hat down lower on his ears. "They don't give a shit. You put me there for nothing."

"I put you there because your father is a drunken asshole. I'm trying to help you."

"Go help someone else." Jimmy rose to his feet, his hands balled into tight fists and his eyes set with determination. "I'm not going back," he spat out, as if every thing that was wrong in his life could change if he only ran far enough.

"What are you going to do, then?" Puck got up as well. He hated how much of himself he could see in the kid but it also reminded him why he got up so early in the morning, why he stayed up so late at night, why it was all worth it. He had started to try and get himself out of troubles, to try and become someone different, someone better, but now he did it so he could save someone and make a difference. "Look, I won't be around forever," he said and saw the words hit Jimmy. "I'm trying to help you. If you keep escaping sooner or later people will stop caring about what happens to you and you will turn into just another homeless kid who does bad things because he has no other choice." He sighed heavily and bent his knees a little so he could look Jimmy in the eyes. "I'm giving you a chance, again," he added with a smile. "Take it."

"You're leaving like everyone else."

"You've got my number kiddo." Puck took off Jimmy's cap and ruffled his hair. "Promise me you will go back to the institute and stop running away."

Jimmy giggled slapping Puck's hands away. "Stop it and give me my cap back!"

"Promise."

"Okay, okay, I promise."

"Good." Puck put the cap back on Jimmy's head and squashed it a bit making the boy laugh again. He was sorry that he wasn't going to see Jimmy again but he couldn't find in himself to really be sorry for leaving. He had dreamed of big cities and bigger dreams like everyone else when he was a teenager and now, even if in a way he had never imagined before, he was going to leave Lima, finally. "Go now. It's late." He turned around to walk back to the car where Agent Nolan was waiting for him but Jimmy called his name stopping him.

"Puck?"

He turned around, already a few feet away from the kid. "What is it?"

"Will I ever see you again?"

"I don't know," Puck answered honestly.

"You still have to tell me about your kid."

Puck laughed shaking his head. "Go back now."

"Goodbye Puck."

They weren't supposed to be drinking on duty, but the Captain was determined to make an exception. "When Puckerman got assigned here I thought he was going to be the worst cop ever since we all knew him already." The paunchy man gave a loud chuckle that was echoed by the oldest policemen. "But it turns out we were all wrong. Puckerman has been great in this last eight years. He rescued lost causes from the streets. Got promoted and now is leaving us for a bigger city." He became serious all of a sudden. "Don't get killed kid," he said, and waited for Puck's firm nod before laughing and inviting everyone to start eating.

Puck took a sip of his champagne and went in search of a plate for the cake. He was stopped on the way by his colleagues who wanted to congratulate him. It made him feel pride that so many people were genuinely happy to see him go. He still felt a hole inside him sometimes where the friendship with Finn used to be, where holding Beth used to be. In the last nine years he hadn't seen or heard from anyone and there were times when he wondered if they still remembered him, if they ever asked themselves, "Whatever happened to Puck?"

Pushing those thoughts asides it still made him unhappy that the first person he had wanted to phone when he got the transfer had been Finn. It also made him unhappy that ever since leaving high school he had pretty much only ever hang out with his colleagues.

"Hey Champ," a familiar voice said from behind him.

He turned around to find Margaret, one of the secretaries. "Leaving us for the bright lights, are you?"

"I will never forget you babe, don't worry."

She laughed, the wrinkles around her mouth getting more pronounced for a moment. "We won't forget you either. Believe me when I say that I had never seen anyone else getting so many kids to stop being delinquents."

Puck shrugged. He always felt that while it was great that he was actually helping someone, it wasn't a big deal because he had simply told those guys what he head wanted to hear when he was his age. He felt like it wasn't something worth being mentioned since it just came from his past experience and not some sort of talent. "I just did my job."

"Sure." Margaret patted him on the shoulder and then smiled at him all soft and sorry as if she was torn between being happy for him and being sad to see him go. It still didn't make much sense for Puck that people actually cared about him. "I hope you will come back to visit us sooner or later."

"My mom and sister are still here, I can't disappear."

"Luckily," she said and patted him again before turning around to mingle with the others.

Puck sighed and looked down at his plate. For the first time he wondered if he had made a bad decision, if he was going to disappoint all these people. He started singing in his head then, to push away those thoughts and cheer himself up.

New York was freezing by the time he made it there. Taking a bus all the way from Lima hadn't been his brightest idea but Puck needed to save money. The apartment he had found was clean and comfortable and sharing it with two of his new colleagues made it a lot easier to afford. His room was the smallest because even though he was now twenty-eight, he still had just a few things. His old guitar was leaning against the wall in the corner and on the desk he had thrown his books and his computer. His Cds were in the wardrobe catalogued for genre because they were still what he cared about the most.

On the only mantle in the room he put a picture of himself holding Beth, still the one from Senior year, but a moment later he took it down because it still hurt, and put one of him and his sister, one of his mother and his portrait from the Academy.

One of the other rooms was occupied by Neil, a bit older than Puck and a lot more cheerful, and the other one by Macy who was funny and smart and reminded Puck of Rachel in a lot of ways.

Becoming friends with Neil and Macy was simple. They were the loud ones and he was the one who reminded everyone about the bills to pay and, as absurd as it sounded, the one that made that strange friendship work. Sometimes Puck looked at himself in the mirror and couldn't recognize the guy from high school and it was okay, it was more than okay. Despite sometimes missing his old friends, he liked who he had become.

"How come that you never bring a girl here?" Neil asked while chewing his cereals, two months after starting to live together.

Macy snorted. "Please, he's embarrassed of us, you should know that by now."

"There's no girl that's why," Puck answered, completely ignoring Macy.

"C'mon, Puck, man. I'm serious." Neil got up from the table and walked inside the kitchen to put down his now empty mug. "There must be someone. We promise not to embarrass you if you let us meet her."

"There's no girl," Puck said again. He closed the newspaper and finished his mug of coffee before getting up. "Are you ready? We're late."

Neil came out of the kitchen and sighed in that exasperated way that reminded Puck of his mother. "What about a boy you're hiding away?"

Macy laughed. "That's Neil for you. Everyone's secretly gay."

Puck laughed despite trying not to. "We really need to leave."

"He's not denying it," Neil joked picking up his cap and checking that he wasn't forgetting anything. "Were you always this boring? Because from your file you looked a lot more interesting."

"Do I need to go rob a bank to keep you happy?" Puck asked sarcastically while they walked down the stairs of their condo.

"Not necessary but staying out a night or two would be okay."

"Don't worry, I get plenty of action."

Neil arched an eyebrow at Puck and opened his mouth to ask for details when Puck pushed him and laughed. "Shut up."

"So you're getting action?"

"Shut up!"

Neil laughed and started calling Puck lover boy just as they walked out on the street. Puck was about to tell him to stop when someone collided into him. He turned around still laughing and then lost his voice.

A guy was standing in front of him, pale skin and dark hair and green-blue eyes that he had secretly admired when he was still just a teen. He was sure that even though everything else about Kurt Hummel was to change, his eyes would have always been how Puck would recognize him anywhere. But Kurt wasn't that different. The hair was longer and he was taller but he was still Kurt and it made Puck stop.

"I'm so sorry," Kurt said. "I was checking my phone and didn't see you, officer."

Now Puck knew that he looked different when he was wearing his uniform but he was pretty sure that considering for how long they had known each other, Kurt should have still recognized him. However there was no trace of recognition in his eyes.

Kurt swiped a few bangs back from his forehead and his lips started to curve up in the beginning of a smile but then they stopped. "Are you okay, officer?"

Puck straightened up as if coming back to life and took a step back. "Sure."

Kurt squinted his eyes and took a step forward. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

Puck could feel Neil's eyes on him, knew that he would have to answer to an endless list of questions from his friend, but ignored it and shook his head scowling his face in a mask of indifference. "No, you don't." And somehow that was true because Puck wasn't the same person Kurt used to know but it still stung in a strange way having to say those words. He had pictured enough times in his head how meeting his former friends would be like but this was nothing like he had imagined.

He turned around then to walk away but was stopped by Kurt's voice. "Have a nice day, officer."

Puck glanced at him from over his shoulder and simply said, "You too," before grabbing Neil's arm to drag him towards the Police Station. Puck counted to twenty before Neil started his questioning.

"You knew that guy. It was written all over your face."

"No, I really don't."

"Puck."

"Neil."

They crossed the street in silence the scene of a few minutes earlier replaying in Puck's mind. He was so distracted that he almost ran into a lamppost.

"This is proof enough that you knew him." Neil paused and took a breath and when he next spoke, he tried to sound as indifferent as possible. "So, who was him?"

Keep lying wouldn't solve anything so Puck shrugged and didn't meet Neil's blue eyes. "Just someone from high school."

"You two weren't friends?"

"We were," the automatic answer was out before Puck could stop it. "It's a long story but we were good friends. Doesn't really matter now."

"Hey, it's been what? Almost ten years since you two last saw each other?" Puck nodded and Neil went on. "If I met any of my high schoolmates now, I wouldn't recognize them, not even one of them. People move on it's normal. Do you actually remember the face of everyone?"

Puck frowned. It felt like trying to reach a memory further away than just nine years. The faces he came up with were a bit faded. He could remember Santana's because they had been sort of together and he could remember Quinn's and Rachel's and Finn's but the other's were just faded memories. He remembered things about them, like Mike's dancing and Artie's rapping, but nothing past that. Of course Mercedes' face was on TV and her songs on the radio so he remembered her and apparently Kurt's face was pretty engraved in his memory too, but he couldn't even really remember Mr. Schue's face.

"See?" said Neil, bringing Puck out of his musing. "No big deal."

Puck nodded because they had reached the Station and he had no intention of keeping discussing the matter, but he still felt as if he had been punched and he hated it.