Disclaimer: If only, if only, but alas, I don't own these lovely characters.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who's reviewed. It makes me so happy to see everyone enjoying this story. Please, keep them coming! Also – Glee tonight! YAY!
By the time they had reached the hospital, Puck had gotten himself under control, and was back to his usual self. At least on the outside. But that was what mattered, really. No one could see him feeling the way he did now. Or having any feelings for that matter.
And in the spirit of being back to his regular self, he flirted shamelessly and managed to get the hot nurse who brought him pain med's number (his mom was in the waiting room) before the doctor came in
"What's the word, Doc?"
"Oh, they're broken alright. You sure did a number on 'em, son." Puck almost lost it then.
"They? Both of my hands? Are broken?" The doctor shook his head.
"No, just a couple bones in your left. You're right is fine. Oh, it'll bruise nice and pretty, but nothing permanent" Puck let out his breath. Not that he was thankful for broken bones. But one cast gets sympathy from girls. Two gets laughter.
The doctor shoved the x-ray up, pointing out two places where, from what Puck could see, the white lines on the film weren't the solid lines they were supposed to be. He didn't really pay attention, because he knew the next step. They would have to set the bones. But he had to be a man, and hadn't he wanted some physical pain to help him deal with… that thing that happened today? So he clenched his teeth and tried his best not to scream like a girl (HotNurse was in the room, assisting the doctor) as the ER doctor put the bones back right. That done, they started casting his hand, and Puck tried to concentrate on anything but HotNurse rubbing her hands up and down his arm.
Without even meaning to, his thoughts drifted to Rachel, and how much he hated her right now. No. He didn't hate her. He… he felt a lot of things about her, and this clusterfuck that he was involved in, but hate was not one. She was so… he wished he had her vocabulary to be able to describe her. A few words popped in his mind, but they were all too strong and mostly just nasty names. He sighed inwardly. No, he didn't hate her. She got on his nerves, yeah, but she got on everybody's. He couldn't blame her for what she was.
And if he was being honest with himself, he didn't even blame her for what she had done.
Sure, she should have come to him, asked him what happened. And she shouldn't have assumed - that was for sure. But she was prone to overreactions, and he hadn't been the most open guy that morning. Not that he'd thought he'd needed to, but if he was going to blame her for assuming, then truly, he was as much at fault for the misunderstanding as she was. Plus he'd known something was up when she woke up and was acting so 'deer-in-the-headlights', and he was too absorbed in his fantasies to ask her what was wrong. Actually, he should have started asking questions when little miss prissy became the sexy goddess she'd been in his bed that night. God, he had messed up so bad.
"Um, hello?" came a female voice. Puck snapped out of himself and looked at HotNurse, sitting beside him.
"Huh?" he asked. Had she been talking to him? Whoops.
"I asked what color you wanted. I almost put pink on just to get your attention." She laughed to herself, but stopped when she saw the look on his face. "We, um… I think green and blue are probably the only "guy" colors we have."
"Green." Puck grunted. She held up two rolls, one bright neon, and one dark. "The dark one." She nodded, and Puck rested his head back against the hospital bed. After she finished, the doctor came back in to explain to him cast-procedures. Puck nodded, but he knew the drill. He hadn't played sports since he was little and never had a broken bone.
The ride home with his mom wasn't as bad as he'd thought it would be. She was quiet, and Puck wondered why, but not enough to ask her. He knew that starting any conversation with her now would just lead to why he decided to pick a fight with a tree. And he wasn't sure, even with the realization he'd had in the hospital, that it would be best to tell his mom yet. Or ever, for that matter. So the ride home was a comfortable silence, and when they got home, Puck went straight to his room, hoping she would leave him alone. She did.
The painkillers were starting to wear off, and he knew that even if he took more his hand would still bug him tonight, but his only thought was how to fix what had happened today, if there was any way to fix it.
He considered calling her, but after searching through his phone's contact list (which involved curling up his hand, making him gasp in what he tried to make a very manly way) he realized that he didn't have her number. So that plan went out the window.
He considered driving to her house, but then he'd have to explain to his mom where he was going (can't climb out the window with a broken hand) and that plan went the way of the first one.
So Puck laid back on his bed, and brainstormed ideas. By midnight, he still had nothing, but his hand hurt to a point that he couldn't stand it, and so he took four pain pills and closed his eyes. Luckily, the pain pills knocked him out enough that he didn't wake up, even though he was sleeping on his hand.
He noticed in the morning, though, when he woke up and it was throbbing. And instead of resigning to carry around an ice pack for it, he came up with the brilliant plan to just hold a slushie. Yeah. That would help.
He was almost out of the convenience store when he saw the little teddy bears sitting on the counter, holding little hearts. He almost vomited, but a thought struck him then, and a Cheshire-cat like smile crossed his face.
"And give me one of those… bears." The guy behind the counter gave him a look, but Puck had on a 'don't question me' face, and the cashier shrugged and rung it up. With the bear stuffed into his backpack as far as he could get it, Puck pulled up to the school and walked straight into the guidance counselor's office.
"I need the combination to Rachel Berry's locker." He told the woman behind the desk, hoping that she would just hand it to him so he could get this done sooner.
"We don't really give those out." She said, gesturing for him to sit down. So he would have to work for it. Fine.
"Look, Miss…" He snuck a peek at her name plate on the desk, "Miss Pillsbury, I uh…" Think Puck, "I need her combination so that, uh… so that I can give her my secret Glee gift. Yeah, we're having a gift exchange. In Glee. Totally legit kind of a thing." The little redhead's eyes lit up. He'd played the right card.
"Oh. Well, that's a bit of a different matter then. Well, um…" She dug through her file cabinet, "Here we are!" She wrote down the locker number and combination on a Post-It, and then handed it to him. He smiled in spite of himself.
"Thanks." He said, and marched out. That had almost been too easy. Walking as quickly as he could to her locker, Puck opened it, shoved the bear in, shut it and walked away. He knew he would be late for first period, but at least no one had seen him. The lengths he went to for that little soprano.
Puck waited all day to hear the squeal of joy come down the hall, but it never did. He almost didn't want to go to Glee, figuring that she would have ripped the stupid bear to shreds and would curse him out in front of the club for putting it in her locker. But when he arrived, and peeked around the corner, he saw her sitting in the front row with the bear in her lap. She had tears flowing down her face.
Puck almost smacked himself, but remembered his bum hand before it came up. 'Well, there's nothing to do now, but go in and watch her cry.' So he did, making sure to sit right behind her, in case she talked about it. He might be making himself a glutton for punishment, but if by any chance those were those mysterious "happy" tears girls were always talking about, he was going to hear why she was happy. Sure enough, not five minutes later, Finn strolled in and sat right beside her.
"Nice bear!" Puck saw Rachel turn to Finn and nod.
"I found him in my locker after first period. Did you see what it says on the heart?" Finn shook his head and Puck about died. It had writing on the heart?
"U R 2 cute. Isn't that sweet?" Puck silently thanked God that the clerk hadn't picked one that had a super sappy message on it.
"Who's it from?" Finn asked. Moment of truth.
"I don't know. There wasn't a note or anything. Just the bear." Rachel held the thing out in front of her. "I'm going to name him… Elliot. He seems like an Elliot." She pulled the bear back to her chest, and Puck heard the sniffles. He reached his hand out, but Finn got there first.
"What's wrong?" She shook her head.
"I… just, everything this week, after the party… it's been so horrible, and then whoever puts this in my locker, and I just…" She turned to Finn, "I remember now that there is good in this world. So I'm crying happy tears, because somebody cares about me. I don't know who, but somebody. And that means a lot right now." Mr. Shue walked in then, and Puck noticed that the room had filled up while had been eavesdropping. But practice started, and Puck tuned out. He noticed that Rachel never let go of the bear, and when she left, she didn't put the bear into her bag, but simply carried it with her out of the room.
Puck sat back against his headboard later that night, wondering where he would find stuffed animals other than the gas station. Because she obviously needed more.