AN: I'm sobbing right now cause I just finished Glee. If you haven't seen it don't, I'm warning you cause then you'll suffer during the seven week hiatus. Anyway because I'm really emotional I couldn't remember what else I wanted to put in this chapter so it'd on the short side, but I'll publish it anyway cause I'm shaking and can't function properly. Please forgive any grammatical errors, or any other errors. Reviews and suggestions welcome. I own nothing. If I did then- well actually I have little complaints cause Faberry is more canon than ever.

AN: Also note that it will take some time for Rachel to find her way to Quinn's door. So there will, at least for a few chapters, be little Faberry interaction.

Hold On

Rachel lies lazily on her bed. It's several hours after noon, but she hasn't found the energy to get up yet. She's still in her pajamas and her hair is tied in a ponytail. Her eyes are fixed on the ceiling, staring at nothing in particular. She rolled over and grabbed a mirror from on top of her nightstand to see if she looked as bad as she did the previous night.

She looked worse.

Her eyes were bloodshot; which was due to lack of sleep and because she was crying, she reminded herself. Also due to the rough night she had bags under her eyes. The sight frightened the brunette slightly; her daily routines always made certain that her sleeping schedule was the same each and every night, unless she went out, and as such bags have never appeared under her eyes before.

Her body feels numb for having stayed in the same position for several hours now, and so it takes a considerable amount of effort for her to swing her legs off the side of her bed. She props her arms on either side of her as she slowly pushes herself up. Her still asleep legs wobble slightly and she nearly falls flat on her face. She makes her way downstairs without bothering to change; she's in her own house and besides she's really hungry. Rachel reaches the bottom step and the front door swings open.

"Sam, where have you been?" she doesn't even remember hearing him leave in the first place.

"I could ask you the same thing, but by the look it," he gestured at her attire, "I'd say you've been in bed." She gives him an affirmative nod. The blonde boy doesn't give one initially and instead just heads towards the kitchen and grabs a box of cereal, a bowl, and some milk. Rachel follows and begins searching through the fridge because she still needs something in her stomach too. "I was dropping Quinn, San, and Britt off at the airport," he says as he pours the cereal into the bowl.

"Oh," Rachel pulls out of the fridge and closes it. Her hunger is now replaces with guilt and something else that she can't quite place. Her legs feel weak again, so she takes a seat by the island opposite Sam. "You- you dropped her off?" Somehow she hadn't registered the fact that Quinn was on a plane right now.

"Yeah, after you refused to answer your phone last night she decided to give me a call." He took a few scoops of cereal. "And it looks like she made the right choice," he blurted out and instantly regretted his words. Quinn had become one of his best friends and he had now come to look at Rachel as another sister; he didn't actually enjoy picking sides like he was now, but he was well aware that both of them were very unhappy with where they were in life right now.

Rachel didn't come up with a retort though. She seemed to agree or perhaps she just brushed his opinion aside. "How was she?" Sam looks up from his food. "Quinn?" she adds though she knows she doesn't have to.

"Okay enough," he placed the unfinished bowl down on the island. "She wrote you this," Sam gets up and unnecessarily walks around the island to hand it to her. Rachel bites her lip and hesitantly takes the envelope. The diva eyes her name written in Quinn's graceful handwriting and flips it over. She opens it and is about to pull it out when she jumps out of her seat.

"I'll take it to my room," she announces.

"Are you going to read it?"

"Yes, Sam." The brunette runs up to her room and shuts the door, locking it. She jumps into her bed that she had just recently gotten out of. It's still warm and Rachel now remembers why she got out of it in the first place. Her stomach rumbles but she doesn't make the effort to go back downstairs. Rachel sits back up and pulls the letter out, carefully unfolding it.

Dear Rachel,

I don't know what I'm doing, or what I'm thinking. I don't know why I'm writing this, and I don't know what I'm trying to say. I know that those words came out wrong yesterday, but I meant everything I said.

The grip her fingers had on the piece of paper grew tighter.

Maybe I lashed out at Finn a bit, but all of it was true. You're not the same girl I met four years ago.

Her hands were now shaking as she was slightly irritated with Quinn's insistence.

I miss you Rachel, the REAL you. I'll still love care about you no matter what, but you don't have that fire in you anymore.

Rachel phone rang and she tossed the letter aside on her nightstand, promising to finish latter after she cooled down. "Hello?" she answered.

"Hey Jew Babe, you and Sam home yet?"

"Uh, yeah we are. Did you want to hang out with Sam, Noah?" She heard him chuckle from the other line.

"If I did, don't you think I'd call his phone?" Rachel mentally smacked herself for not seeing the obvious. "Anyway, like I told you before I couldn't be there today because I've had pools to clean all day. And I though, since we haven't spent much time together, that you might want to come along for the last one. Take a swim." Rachel brow furrowed in thought. Going for a swim did sound like a good idea. Then something dawned on her.

"You just want to see me in a bikini, don't you?" She heard him mutter something under his breath. "I'll go, Noah. Are you going to pick me up?"

"Yeah, I'll be there in a bit. I'll give you a call."

Rachel went to her closet to get the necessary swimming attire. She settled on a two piece, pink swimsuit. It probably wasn't the best choice as she and Puck still had some attraction to each other, but Puck had assured her long ago that they were, in Puck's words, just bros.

She quickly changed and not one second after she was finished she received another call from Puck. She was thankful that they were able to avoid Sam. The last thing she needed was another person worrying about her. She was a big girl after all; she could take care of herself.

"Why is it so cold?" Rachel had just dipped her foot into the pool, and with the freezing temperature she pulled out so fast that she almost fell right on her butt, or worse she could have fallen into the pool. Puck shrugged his shoulders and continued his work. "You don't know? There's got to be something you can do, right? I don't want to just sit around watching you clean," she whined.

"Well alright," he strode over to her a glint in his eye and an evil smirk on his face. Rachel tried to run away, but was unsuccessful and instead found herself flailing wildly on Puck's shoulder.

"Noah, don't you dare!" she warned. He took a step towards the pool and the diva began pounding on his back. "I swear Puckerman, if you throw me in there I'll- I'll-" She didn't actually have anything to threaten him with and soon was tossed rudely into the freezing water. "You- you- ass!" she got out through her shivering. "Can you at least help me out?" she asked, extending a hand to him. He reached out to help her up, and Rachel instantly smiled and pulled him down instead.

"Fuck, this is cold!"

"Told you." She tossed some water at him.

"Oh, you want to play like that?" He splashed her back. Rachel shrieked out and feigned hurt just long enough to get Puck to let his guard down, then went back on the offensive.

"Ha, I can't believe you fell for that!" She continued on with her assault, relishing every moment of her almost certain victory. Rachel had occasional wins when it came down to her and Puck's play fights, but most of those came from Puck giving her a win. Being the competitive type she wasn't one to just accept someone giving her victory. And maybe she was cheating a bit, Puck cheated all the time. They continued on for a while. By the time they were finished they were both freezing but had huge smiles on their faces. "I never thought you could be such a punk, Noah, or that gullible," she joked.

"Neither do I," Puck admitted. "I must be going soft."

"You've always been soft for me."

"Whatever you say Rach. Let's get out of here, and get dry."

"Thanks," Rachel said as Puck drove her home. "That was fun. You were a jerk," she punched his arm, "but that was fun."

"And you were hot; you really need to stop hiding that body of yours." Typical Puck, Rachel punched him once again. "Hey, that was a compliment!" He shook his head and muttered, "Women sometimes," earning him another punch.

"Are you trying to make me mad?" the brunette asked with a smile and another swat to Puck's arm. "Or are you just being dumb?" He received another needless hit.

"Which answer will make you stop hitting me?" Rachel smacks him again, and laughs.

"Sorry, that was the last one. I promise."

Puck rolls his eyes and gives her a light tap on the arm as well when he reaches a red light. "Don't worry about it; you hit like a girl anyway." Rachel huffed in fake offense. "Besides it's nice to see you smile."

"Yeah," she replied, not really knowing how to respond. The brunette felt that Puck had wanted to say more but he didn't, and although it was somewhat relieving it was also made her feel uncomfortable. "Thanks again. Today really did help," she admitted for reasons she didn't know.

"Thought it would," Puck replied smugly. "We're here," he announced as he parked in front of her house. She got of his car and made her way to the door. "What no kiss?" she heard Puck say from behind her shoulder.

"You wish," she turned around and returned his coy smile. "Goodnight, Noah," she cooed.

She went inside once she saw Puck drive off. The lights were off, a sign that no one was home. Rachel had eaten a while go, having gone to the Lima Bean with Puck and so she headed off to her room. The brunette was pretty tired and just wanted to sleep so she decided not to turn on her light when she reached her room; A bit of a mistake as she stumble around a bit, bumping into her nightstand before she fell on her bed. She curled up in her sheets and didn't at all notice the piece of paper that slipped into the space between her nightstand and her bed.

AN: Thanks for reading and I apologize about the shortened length, and be on the lookout for a one-shot or two-shot concerning tonight's episode.