Puck waited a beat or two after the door had shut behind Rachel before heading for the one on the opposite end of the choir room that was closer to the parking lot. His thoughts were mixed between what his mother would serve for dinner tonight and if Rachel had changed her room at all since he'd last been in it, so he didn't notice Finn standing in front of his car until he nearly bumped into him.

"Hey," Puck raised his fist for a fist pump in greeting, but Finn ignored the gesture, keeping his arms crossed menacingly in front of his chest. "Look, dude…" Puck started, since he had seen that look on Finn's face before, right before he had gotten beat up on the choir room floor sophomore year.

"Don't you think I know what you're doing?" Finn spat at him. "Using the one thing Rachel and I don't have in common to win her over?" Puck bit his lip to keep himself from blurting out that that was far from the only thing Finn and Rachel didn't have in common. Instead he just held his hands up in a mock surrender.

"It's not like that, dude." He pleaded, in the manliest way possible. "It was our Rabbi's idea, and I didn't even want to, but my ma was there, and you know how she is, and c'mon, apparently it'll look really good on my college apps, and I mean, god, ya know, yeah, like, god'd probably be pissed if I didn't, and I, I just-" He knew he was rambling (in true Rachel Berry Fashion, he noted), but he just wanted that scary hard look to leave Finn's face. He sighed. "I meant what I said last year, Finn. She's yours." He stated as firmly as he could, looking Finn directly in the eyes for the first time that afternoon. He saw Finn's resolve weaken until he slumped miserably against Puck's car. Puck stood, a little taken aback by the sudden change in his demeanor.

"Puck, man, I know you're not out to get her…" Finn started, scoffing his shoe against the ground. "It's just, the whole thing last year, hell the whole thing sophomore year with Quinn too, and then Jesse, it's just, I'm constantly afraid I'm going to lose to someone else. It freaks me out." He mumbled that last part, and Puck had to lean in a bit to hear him. Not that Puck honestly wanted to hear him. This was weird for the too of them. They didn't discuss feelings and shit. The closest they came was that one "I'll stay away." moment last year. Dudes just didn't discuss feelings with other dudes. Feelings were normally reserved for telling a chick when she'd decided you had to "connect more" in order for her to let you in her pants. Therefore, Puck wasn't really sure what to do.

"Dude, she's cool, trust her," was his honest reply. He knew Rachel would rather kick puppies than cheat on Finn again.

"I do, I think." Finn sighed. "I don't know what to think anymore." His phone buzzed, and he checked it before looking back up at Puck. "It's Rachel. She said she's on her way out…what exactly did she say to you?" Puck could see the green-eyed monster was definitely still buried in Finn's eyes, but he since he was being tentatively friendly about the whole situation, Puck decided to do what he could to keep that going.

"She just wants me to come over tonight so she can discuss ideas for her stupid mixer thing." Puck shrugged. He didn't think the idea was stupid, but he figured it was better if Finn thought Puck wasn't into this at all. He was right, and the answer seemed to satisfy Finn, who just nodded, and then glanced over his shoulder as he saw a flash of windblown brown hair approach them.

"Hi boys!" Rachel greeted. Puck tried not to notice the way the wind was currently whipping her skirt up a bit too much. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting long, Finn. I just couldn't find my Spanish homework. It's odd because I normally keep it in my Spanish binder, but it was in my English binder. I guess I wasn't paying all that much attention, which isn't like me at all…" As she yammered on, Finn had grabbed her hand and was walking her back over to his car. She turned to wave goodbye to Puck quickly as she practically skipped along Finn's side to match his long strides. Puck again had to remind himself not to think it was kind of adorable that her mouth never seemed to stop moving as Finn helped her in to her side of the truck. As he had just told his best friend, Rachel was only Finn's to find adorable. Oh, and he had Lauren of course…

"so at the end of the class, I suppose I was distracted, and my Spanish binder and my English binder are the same shade of purple…hmm I should really change that, since I have the classes one right after another. Do you think I should get a new pink binder for Spanish?" Rachel looked up at Finn expectantly as he turned out of the parking lot. He normally found her quirky ability to overtalk every situation endearing, and would often entertain her questions with a very simple-minded Finn-esque point-of-view that would sometimes not many any sense, but sometimes would make complete sense in a cute and silly way, and she loved that about talking to him, but now he was currently just staring straight ahead, not really hearing a word she was saying. She placed a tentative kiss on his shoulder. "What's wrong?" She whispered, although she had a feeling she already knew the answer.

"Did you really invite him over to your house later?" Finn asked, not moving his eyes from the road. He also, already knew the answer.

"Well…yes" Rachel honestly replied, she didn't think it would have this impact on him. "I didn't think it would be a problem. I need his help figuring out the best way to link all of my ideas together. He is co-chair for a reason." Finn nodded, turned on the radio, and didn't say another word to her until they pulled onto her driveway, not even singing along with her when Fleetwood Mac's Don't Stop came on, and she knew he loved that song.

As soon as he put the car in park, he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes before he turned to her, touched her cheek softly, and quietly whispered, "Don't do it."

Rachel lifted her eyes to meet his in shock. "Don't do what?"

"Don't have Puck over. Please. I can't picture you two in your room again." He was completely begging now. "Discuss it over the phone or something."

"I thought you had forgiven me." Rachel countered.

"I had. I do. I don't know." He stammered. Rachel gaped at him. He wasn't the Finn she had met and fallen in love with Sophomore year. He had been hurt, really hurt, at least twice since then. He was a little bit broken, and it was starting to show. She had a feeling she was going to regret what she was about to say.

"Fine. I won't have him over."

At 6:05, Puck rang Rachel's doorbell. Immediately, it opened and one of Rachel's fathers smiled warmly at him. Puck had kind of been expecting Rachel to answer the door, chastising him for being late, so he was a little thrown, but stuck out his hand regardless.

"Uh hello Mr. Berry, I'm Pu-err Noah Puckerman." He tried his best to not look uncomfortable as he shook her father's hand.

"Hello! So you're the famous Noah?" He chuckled. "Leroy and I have heard quite a bit about you…as well as seeing you around temple and Glee of course ." Puck figured he should have been a little surprised that Rachel had talked so much about him, but then that girl blabbered about everything. "Your mother tells us every Saturday how highly she thinks of you." Oh, nevermind, thanks Ma.

"Oh um, thanks?" This whole father thing wasn't Puck's forté. Rachel's father smiled at him, seeming to understand. "I had a mullet in high school. Parents didn't like me either." He winked. "Rachel's in her room. Go on up." Puck started to climb the stairs, before doing something he figured was rather clever. "Um Mr. Berry, which one is Rachel's room?" No need for her father to know he'd already found it three times unsupervised.

"Second door on the right!" Mr. Berry called cheerily as he walked towards the kitchen.

"Your dad doesn't suck…" He started, pushing the door to Rachel's room open. He stopped when he saw her. She was sitting on her bed in the same clothes she wore to school that day, but something looked off about her. He looked her up and down before realizing her eyes were a little red and there were used tissues on her lap. Shit. He knew what that meant. He lived with two women.

"Language, Noah." She sniffled, but he didn't really hear her.

He thought of sitting on the bed with her, and remembering what had gone down in the parking lot this afternoon, thought better of it and pulled her desk chair out. He wasn't as stupid as everyone thought he was. He knew that Finn had to be why she was crying. What else could have happened between Finn's breakdown to him and now? He fiddled with his thumb for a minute and then asked, "What did Finn say?" As a guy, he had kind of had his fill of feelings for the day, but he hated when she looked that sad. He felt the same overwhelming urge to protect her from whatever had hurt her that he had felt when Jesse had dumped eggs all over her head a couple of years ago. He didn't think slashing Finn's tires would help this time though (not that it really had last time…).

"He begged me not to have you over." She admitted quietly. She felt no need to lie to Puck. It wasn't really his fault that she had just lied to her boyfriend and unearned his very fragile trust. Puck looked at her questioningly and then voiced the question she had been trying to answer herself ever since she got home.

"Then why am I here?"

"I don't know."

"Then, I'm leaving."

Rachel looked up quickly from her tissues quickly. She hadn't been expecting that. "What?"

"Unless you give me a good reason why I should be betraying my boy's trust AGAIN, I'm not going to stay." His tone was harsh, even for him. She was floored. He was being so noble. He was being the guy she loved being friends with, because this guy was loyal to his friends, and had your back no matter what.

"We need to discuss the mixer." She offered lamely.

"Berry, we can do that over the phone, or over e-mail." His voice was still hard. "Tell me why I'm here." She knew he knew her too well for her to try to lie to him.

"I miss you." She whispered.

"I know."

"Do you miss me?"

"You were easy to cheat off of in math." His smirk told her that was the closest she was going to get to him admitting that he did. He tried to swallow the lump of betrayal he felt in his throat. "Is it worth it though? What if Finn finds out you lied to him?"

"This is how I see it." Rachel sat up a little straighter, letting Puck know he was in for more than a few words. "Since we are not doing anything we shouldn't be doing, and we are merely partners on a work project for the rabbi, and by extension, god, Finn has no rational reason to not want us to work together. Therefore, I should not feel guilty for working with you here. The lie was merely a sort of white lie, like telling him what he needed to hear, like when girls ask boys if they look fat, and boys would never say yes, even if they do. That is my rationalization." She hesitated. "…and I was hoping you would feel the same way and not tell him."

"I don't know." Puck wavered. "If you're so sure, what's with the tissues and the 'I was just crying' eyes?"
"I was crying because…" Rachel stopped. "Nevermind, you don't want to hear it."

Puck Smirked. As much as he was sure she was right and he didn't want to hear it, he was never one to back down from a challenge. "Try me."

She blew her nose one last time, and decided that maybe telling someone would make her feel better. "I feel like Quinn and I…we both kind of…messed him up a lot more than I initially thought."

"Keep going." Puck pressed her. Rachel looked at him. He looked genuinely worried at what she was saying, so she pressed on.

"Well I was thinking, that aside from the whole Santana debacle, which I now blame on him trying to deal with the fact I was with someone else, Finn is kind of a serial monogamist."

"Huh?"

"It means he's a one woman at a time kind of a guy." Rachel patiently explained. "He's only ever fallen in love with two girls, and both of them betrayed him. Admittedly, Quinn's betrayal was much larger than mine, but I did cheat on him. He tried explaining this to me right after it happened last year, but I was too focused on getting him back to really listen. Then, he jumped right back to Quinn, who he could never really trust. I think it was foolish on my part to assume that he would be able to jump back to me and automatically be able to trust me again." She hesitated and Puck just sat there, knowing there was something important she hadn't said yet. "I don't think he's going to be able to trust women for a very long time unless he gets some kind of…help." She bit her lip and waited for Puck's response. He sat dumbfounded for a minute or two.

"You want to send Finn to a therapist?" He choked out.

"I doubt he would ever agree to it." She admitted. "I'm sure it's unmanly, but I just had the realization that the relationship Finn and I have now is always going to be harder than it was last year. He's not the same man I fell in love with." Her hand flew up to her mouth after she said that. She couldn't believe she had even thought that, no less said it aloud. She tried to backpedal. "I do still love him though. I care about him a lot." She insisted. She watched helplessly as Puck looked at her like she had three heads, and then stood up and walked in to her bathroom and closed the door.

Relax, Puck. He told himself while staring into the mirror. He wasn't used to anyone laying this much on him all at once. The closest feeling he could compare it to was when he found out Quinn was pregnant. Rachel had just told him not only did his best friend need a therapist, but that basically she wasn't as in love with him as she used to be. He had no idea what she expected him to do with this information. Rachel and I are not even really friends! He wanted to scream. Why couldn't she lay this on Mercedes or Kurt or Tina at one of their little girly sleepovers? Why hadn't he just left when he felt like he was supposed to?

He knew the answer to that. He stayed because he cared about Rachel. He had since that stupid dream about her that he had had before asking her out. He didn't want her to be crying. He didn't want her to feel guilty because she had to lie to her boyfriend. He also felt partially responsible. It was his fault that Finn was messed up. It was his fault that both of his girlfriends had cheated on him. The guilt of that was going to choke him if he thought about it for long enough, so he splashed water on his face and walked back into Rachel's room, where she was still staring at the spot where he had been sitting.

"Sorry." She whimpered. He couldn't stand seeing her like that. She was like a beautiful tiny baby dear whose mother had just been shot like in that stupid Disney movie his sister made him watch.

Puck didn't know what to say to her. He had realized sometime in the last five minutes that everything she had said was correct. Finn had changed for the worse. He was messed up. There was really nothing either could do about it at the moment, but he realized that the knowledge of Finn's current state now had bonded them. They both wanted to help him. They both cared about him. Shit. He really needed her to stop looking like she was about to burst into tears. He couldn't take it. He practically ran to the bed and scooped her into a giant hug as he felt her dissolve into sobs on his shoulder. He didn't mind holding her like this, but he knew she'd only feel better if he found a distraction, so he searched her room earnestly. Finally his eyes landed on the whiteboard propped on her desk where she had written the words: "BUDGET! FUN! RELIGION!"

"Hey Rach," He whispered into her hair, causing her to sit up a bit. "What's that mean?" Her eyes followed where his finger was pointed until they landed on the whiteboard.

"Oh!" She hastily wiped her eyes and got off the bed to walk over to her desk. "Those are the three most important things we need to worry about while planning the mixer." She seemed grateful for the distraction, which was just what he had planned, and she immediately began to fish through the papers on her desk until she found the one she was looking for.

"The rabbi gave us 100 dollars for our first event. He said our budget will increase if it's successful." She informed him. Puck didn't really know or care when she had decided to converse with the rabbi on the matter. He was just glad that she was making his job a hell of a lot easier. "If we use my karaoke machine and CDs and the temple's rec room, the only thing we need to buy is food and decorations." She looked pleased with herself, but Puck laughed.

"Rach, you think guys want to go to a 'karaoke mixer'?" Puck scoffed. "Unless girls will be wearing bikinis while singing, hell no!"

"That's actually not a bad idea…" She offered, after frowning slightly at him for his language.
"What?" She was seriously considering that?

"Well, Noah, you have a pool right?" She asked.

"Yeah…" He kind of liked where this was going.

"Well, maybe we could combine my cultural idea with the needs of hormonal boys." She stated. "We could have a pool party, and do karaoke on your deck, and maybe have some non-karaoke music for dancing if my extensive karaoke collection gets exhausted." She clapped her hands in excitement. Puck stared at her, for an entirely different reason than he had a few minutes ago. That was kind of an amazing idea. He was quite impressed.

"Oh shoot!" She pouted. Puck chuckled at her word choice. He hadn't said shoot since kindergarten.

"What?"

"We kind of ignored the religion part of this…" She pointed at "RELIGION!" giggled a bit at herself, which Puck noticed, was really cute, He mentally hit himself on the head when he remembered he wasn't supposed to find anything she did cute. He made his brain move to the problem at hand, so he'd stop thinking about the way the sound of her giggling made him feel.

"Just make the party Saturday after the temple service, and tell them they can't come if they don't go to the service beforehand." Puck suggested with a shrug. It seemed like the most obvious solution to him.

"Noah, that's brilliant!" Rachel squeaked, tackling him in a celebratory hug. He grinned into her hair. He didn't get compliments all that often, so they always meant something to him. A little too quickly for Puck's liking, she seemed to remember there wasn't supposed to be this contact between them and pulled away, seemingly reluctantly. They shared an awkward look of guilt and then Puck felt a buzz in his pants pocket. He pulled it out to see a text from Lauren.

I just kicked some senior kid's ass. You know how that gets me in the mood. You want some of this Puckerman?

Puck smiled at the text message. He did know how much kicking ass got Lauren in the mood for something dirty. That's why she was so cool. However, as he texted back a "Hell Yeah! Be there soon", his normal excitement, while still there, was a little faded from the fact he'd have to leave Rachel behind, and he knew she wasn't in the best mental state.

"Rach, are you gonna be ok if I have to go home? My mom needs me to take care of something." He didn't know why he lied, but he felt like, for some reason, rubbing his somewhat healthy relationship in her face right now wouldn't make her any happier. She looked at him suspiciously like she didn't quite believe his mother could have made him smile down at his phone, but she didn't question it. Puck figured she didn't really want to know the truth at the moment.

"Sure, that's fine Noah." She put her hand on his arm like she had earlier in the day. "Thank you for…everything." She looked him in the eye, and for a split second, Puck forgot all about Lauren, and Finn, and his badassnes, and the fact he really needed to get laid. He just kind of wanted to keep looking at her, but he knew he couldn't, so he tore his eyes away so he could think straight, muttering a "no problem" as he walked out of her bedroom door, her following behind him to walk him out like the good hostess she was (when she wasn't crying in her bedroom that is). As she opened her front door for him, she reminded him, "Keep thinking of ways we can make this mixer even more a blast!"

"Sure Rach." He smirked at her, and she didn't look all that pleased at the evil glint in his eye, but he turned around and walked out her front door and into his car. He wasn't thinking of involving anything as illegal as his pot brownies to make the party more of "a blast". His idea was legal…if you were over 21.

Sorry, it's a little longer than I anticipated. Thanks again for the reviews, and sorry if the stuff with Finn was a bit heavy, but I kind of thought it was necessary...I hope you enjoyed it! Enjoy your weekend!