Author's Note: Bear with me Sunny... I promise, it's coming :)

She was right, he'd lost his mind, but it was all her fault. He should just take her to her house. Rachel was a quick thinker, she could easily come up with a story to tell her dads. And if she couldn't and she got in trouble well that wasn't his problem, was it?

On the other hand, Puck was 99% percent sure that he could away with taking her home with him. His mom was a nurse at the local hospital, and knew she had worked a 12 hour shift today, and was scheduled to work again at 7am tomorrow. She was usually sound asleep by the time he got home on Friday's and she'd be gone before he even woke up. Due to the embarrassing 'Rosie Palm' incident, she never entered his room unannounced. Of course there was always the 1% chance this could go horribly wrong, but he decided not to think about that.

Rachel was still staring at him as if he had told her he was a flesh eating ax murderer.

"Noah, you can not be serious."

He flashed a grin at her.

"What's wrong Berry?" he asked, "you chicken?"

"I am most certainly not a 'chicken', thank you. But you can't possibly think this is a good idea."

She sounded panicky, he thought, and he wondered which part of his plan scared her more, the idea of getting caught, or the idea of being alone with him, in a room with a bed. The thought of her in his bed made him grin. He imagined her beneath him in nothing but white lace, pink ribbons, and pearls....

"Noah!" she demanded, "Are you listening to me?"

"Nope," he said, grinning wickedly.

"Excuse me?"

"No, I wasn't," he said, "I was actually imaging what you'd look like laying on my bed wearing nothing but..."

"Never mind," she said quickly, "It wasn't important."

He laughed as her face turned bright red. He could tell she hadn't thought about the bed thing before, but she was definitely thinking about it now.

"You know, the more I think about it, I really should go home. Lying to my dads was a terrible thing to do and I should just go home and take responsibility for my actions and accept whatever punishment I deserve as a consequence for..."

"Rach, calm down."

"No, no it's okay, I.."

"Rachel," he said firmly, "Calm down, it'll be okay. I promise."

He could tell she wasn't sure. She was wringing her hands again, and biting on her lip.

"Look, if it makes you feel better, I promise to sleep on the floor."

"Really?" she said hopefully.

"Yes really," he said with a sigh. He wished she didn't look quite so relieved.

She sat quietly for the rest of the ride. As he pulled his truck in front of his house and killed the engine, she suddenly turned toward him.

"What if I don't want you to sleep on the floor?" she asked in a rush, as if it had taken her the entire ten minute ride to gather the courage to say the words aloud.

"Up to you," he said casually. On the inside he was grinning and giving himself mental high fives. This could totally be worth it.

"Stay in the truck for a sec, okay?"

She nodded, her cheeks still flushed.

He grabbed his bag, and walked quickly up to his front door. He slid the key in the lock gingerly, and carefully pushed the door open. Stepping inside he set his bag down in the narrow entry way and stepped into the living room. He looked down the hallway to his left and saw that his mother's bedroom door was shut. Retracing his steps, he walked back outside and helped Rachel out of the truck. When she stood up, his sweatshirt fell well past the middle of her thighs, and still she managed to make it look good.

He grabbed her coat, purse and sweater, and quickly guided her into the house. Just as they made it into the living room, he heard his mother's door crack open. Puck quickly shoved Rachel toward the kitchen as she grabbed her things from his hands. He motioned for her to be quiet, and almost laughed out loud at the "Duh, you idiot," look she gave him.

Puck looked up to see his mom walking down the hall in her blue flannel

bathrobe.

"Noah, honey bear, is that you?"

He winced at the pet name, and walked towards her.

"Yeah mom, it's me. What are you doing up? You have to work early," he said, wrapping his arms around her in a hug.

"I know," she said, "but I heard you guys won your game, and I wanted to congratulate you. Tina Rutheford said you scored a touchdown."

Puck felt his heart swell over the pride in her voice. "I did, mom, it was awesome. I'll get a copy of the game tape from coach for you."

"I'm sorry I missed it Noah," she said, apologetically. "I promise, I'll be at the next game though."

He squeezed her tightly. "It's okay, I know you had to work." He looked down at her, and noted the dark circles under her eyes. "Go back to sleep, mom, you look exhausted."

"No, I'm fine," she said, stepping toward the kitchen, "You must be starving. I made lasagna, let me just heat it up for you..."

"No," Puck said a little too quickly. Trying to sound causal, he continued. "No, mom... I can heat it up myself. Really, go back to bed, I know you're tired."

He could she was wavering. "Promise you'll eat something?"

"Cross my heart," he said.

"And you'll clean up the dishes?"

He nodded.

"Okay then," she sighed, "Goodnight honey bear, I love you."

"I love you too, mom," he said, kissing her on the cheek.

He watched as she turned, and headed back to her room. He waited until the door was firmly shut before glancing over to the kitchen door. When he was satisfied that his mother was asleep, he walked in to find Rachel carefully studying the pictures on fridge.

"Hey you," he whispered, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind.

"Honey bear?" she said smiling.