"Hey."

Puck looked up from his beer. "Hey yourself." He tried to smile. "Settled in okay?"

"Yeah, not much to it." Cara shrugged, taking a seat opposite him. "Just got to hope it's secure. They've separated us fairly decisively. Could be a trap?"

"I don't think so." Puck shook his head, eyes dropping. "Not with these people."

Cara leaned back and studied him for a few seconds. "You got a spare?"

Puck looked up at her, nodding when she gestured at his beer. He reached down and pulled one out of his bag. She popped the lid off and took a drink, settling in her seat again before speaking.

"You wanna talk about it?"

"About what?" He furrowed his eyebrows at her in question.

"This." She gestured with her hand. "These people. Her?"

"Not really." He smiled sadly. "It was a long time ago. I was a kid. It was…"

Puck looked around the room as if searching for the words to finish his sentence, then sighed and took another drink.

"It's not about her. It's about what she represents now. How much we've lost. How much they've taken from us." He shook his head and leaned heavily on the table. "About how much they could still take from us."

Cara nodded and took a drink. Slowly she reached across the table and took his hand. "But you know what, Puck? She's still here. We're still here."

"Not all of us." He shook his head again and stared down at his beer. Slowly a tear worked it's way down his face and Cara squeezed his hand gently before pulling away quickly as he ripped it away and slammed it down on the table.

Somewhere down the hall there was another bang but Cara barely noticed as Puck leapt up and flung his beer at the wall. She jumped out of her chair and scooted back as he reached forward and flipped the table over. Braced for further action, her eyes widened in shock as he covered his face with his hands and dropped to the floor, his shoulders shaking with the force of his tears.

Cara gathered her wits and circled around the upturned table, approaching him cautiously before putting a hand gently on his shoulder.

"She was the only thing I ever did right!" He cried. "The one thing that I didn't screw up and now…"

She knelt down behind him and wrapped her other arm around him as he gripped on to her hand.

"I don't understand." Puck whimpered, his free hand wiping uselessly at his face. "What did I do that was so wrong?"

Cara had no idea what to say. This woman had obviously meant a great deal to him in the past and she didn't know how to comfort him.

"I just...I can't...how could they do that?" He gasped. "She's just a little girl."

Cara scrunched her face up in confusion. Little girl? What was he talking about. Suddenly the realisation spread through her body, chilling her to the bone. Little girl. Quinn and Puck had had a daughter. They had given her away. To one of their teachers.

Fuck…

She gripped him tighter and kissed his neck.

"How could they do this?"

"Cos they're fucking asshole fucks and we're going to fucking kill them all." Santana slurred from her slumped position in the corner.

Cara looked over at her, eyes widening in shock as she took in her appearance. She was absolutely trashed, her eyes rolling about in her head, her face streaked with tears, and one of her fingers was...well, it didn't look right. Her hair was wild and her white tank top seemed to have been sharing whatever Santana had been drinking to get herself into this state. Cara really couldn't deal with drunk Santana now, not with what she had just discovered about Puck.

As if on cue Santana started to crawl over to them, arms and legs really not on the same page. She had no idea what to do and just watched in irritation as her friend wrapped her arms around Puck's legs and rested her head on his knees.

"S'ok. We gon pucking do it, Fuck." She slurred into his leg. "We gon fuckin kill those fuckers n get back. 'Kay?"

Puck started crying again at her words, pulling his hand back to cover his face as he did.

"Hey, Puck, ssh. It's okay." Cara whispered gently, kissing him again. "Come on, help me get her up and we'll go and talk about this, okay?"

He shook his head slowly, his whole body shaking. Fuck, what the hell was she supposed to do? Everything was falling apart. And where the hell was Rachel? She could really use her help right about now. Although judging by her meltdown when they had arrived, maybe it was for the best she wasn't here...

"Santana? Santana." She shook her shoulder, gently at first, then slightly harder. "Santana! Come on! Jesus, get up!" Cara shouted angrily. This was really not what she needed. She needed to look after Puck right now and drunk, weeping Santana was not going to help with that. She couldn't leave her lying on the floor though, God knows what she would get up to.

She heard movement behind her and looked up to see that Jesse douche stomp over and hook his hands under her armpits, yanking her friend up off the floor ungraciously.

"Fuuuccck." Santana whined. "What the fuck?"

"Hey, asshole!" She yelled, jumping up to face him. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

"I am getting her out of the common area before she throws up all over herself." He shrugged. "We shouldn't all have to suffer because she can't handle herself."

"Don't you fucking dare say that about her." Cara spat. "You have no idea what she has been through and you should be grateful for that. You would be dead four times over if you had been in her shoes."

"You have no idea who I am, let alone what I have been through, so don't try and intimidate me, little girl." He smirked. "It didn't work when she tried, it sure as hell won't work coming from a little skank like you."

"Oh yeah?" Cara's hand went to her waistband, eyes narrowing dangerously. "You want to test that theory?"

Jesse's eyes followed the movement of her hand, a cocky smile spreading across his face as he dropped Santana unceremoniously on the floor.

"And what have you got there?"

"Just fuck off, okay?" She answered, realising her mistake and dropping her hand. "She's my friend, I'll deal with her."

"Fine." He nodded, folding his arms and setting his stance. "But I still need to know what you have in your pants. Because you know…"

"Jesse." Rachel's voice broke sharply across the room. "Leave her alone."

"I can't, Rachel." He said calmly, eyes never leaving Cara's face. "I'm sorry but she was about to pull a gun on me. I can't have someone in my house who would do that."

"Well maybe she wouldn't have been forced to if you weren't manhandling my girlfriend."

"Manhandling your…" Jesse's eyes flashed and he whipped round to face her. "Jesus Christ, Rachel, I was just trying to get her out of the way! There are people trying to sleep here, good people who are trying to make a difference, people who don't deserve to be woken up at 2am by your band of miscreants raising merry hell in the dining hall! I mean would you look at who you've aligned yourself with? This escapee from the Jane Adams academy…"

"Jesse…" Rachel interrupted, voice dangerously low as Jesse waved his hand disparagingly in Cara's direction.

"Noah Puckerman, the original Lima loser who only escaped because he fell too far for even that shithole…"

"Don't you…" She took a step towards him, flicking her eyes in warning as Cara's hand moved back to her waistband.

"And to top it all, you're fucking Santana fucking Lopez, the biggest slut in town, who went out of her way to make your life a living hell all through high school!"

Rachel sprang at him with such speed he didn't have time to dodge the punch that broke his nose. He dropped to his knees with a wail, tears springing to his eyes, as Rachel stood over him, her fury shaking through her body.

"You don't ever talk about them that way again!" She screamed at him. "These people have been there for me time and again, through high school and beyond! You knew me for a miniscule amount of time, and it might as well have been in a different life for all the resemblance the girl you knew bears to me. So you keep your mouth shut and leave my friends alone or I swear to God I'll shoot you myself."

Rachel turned on her heel and walked over to Santana. She dropped down beside her and rubbed her shoulder gently.

"Santana? Come on, Santana, get up." She tried to lift her but couldn't. "Cara, help me please?"

Cara realised that she had been standing there gawping since Rachel had punched Jesse and quickly moved over to her side, looking over to where Puck was still staring into space as she went.

"Puck?" She called gently. "Puck, I'll be right back, okay?"

He didn't answer, didn't move.

"I'll look after him." Shelby said from the doorway. "I need to talk to him, but I'll wait until you get back."

Cara stared at her. "I don't think that's…"

"He's going to need you, Cara." Rachel said gently. "Please?"

She nodded once, fear running through her. She didn't feel comfortable being there whilst Puck learned the fate of his child, she didn't think he would want her there, but someone had to stop him from taking off and since Santana was...well, like this…

Gently she helped Rachel try and raise her to a standing position and began the slow walk down the hallway.

"Santana?" Rachel said, slightly more aggressively this time. "Come on, try moving for me. Baby, please?"

Finally Santana opened one of her eyes and her legs started to work with them.

"Maygel?" She muttered. "Miand urts."

"Okay, come on." Rachel said gently. "Let's get you to bed."

Finally they managed to get Santana to her room and Cara pushed the door open, holding it with her foot before carefully maneuvering the extremely drunk girl over to the bed. She backed away as Rachel got her settled, gently pushing the hair off her face and kissing her forehead before walking back to meet Cara at the door.

"I'd better stay with her." She whispered. "Are you okay?"

"Me?" Cara frowned. "I'm fine. It seems to be everyone else that's falling apart."

"I know," Rachel nodded. "It definitely feels like we've reached some sort of breaking point. I just meant with everything that's going on, it must be a lot to take in. And Puck...he's going to need you, Cara."

She backed away a bit, shaking her head. "I really don't think I should be there, Rachel. He needs his friends. Why don't I stay with..."

"No." Rachel answered firmly. "He needs you. The two of you are so close these days. I've seen the way he looks at you."

"He looks at me like he wants to fuck me." Cara scoffed, folding her arms. "That's all this is."

Rachel tilted her head and looked at her calmly. "We both know that's not true. I get that you're scared, that this is all new and a lot to take, but he's about to be told what happened to his child. Please do this for him."

Cara clenched her jaw and kept her eyes on the ground. Jesus, what choice did she have? She cared about him, a lot. She was starting to feel like they had something but what it was she didn't know. Why did everything have to be so fucked up? Still, first and foremost he was her friend, and her friend needed her now. She raised her eyes to meet Rachel's, nodded tightly and set off down the hall.

She heard the door close gently behind her as she reached the entrance to the dining hall. Jesse had picked himself up and disappeared, leaving only a few smears of blood behind him. Shelby had somehow managed to get Puck up off the floor and they were both seated at one of the tables. She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders before setting off across the room to take her place by Puck's side. Whatever Shelby had to tell him, it wasn't going to be good.