Not Quite An Angel On Your Shoulder (2/2)
Title: Not Quite An Angel On Your Shoulder
Character(s)/Pairing: Puck, Quinn, Finn, Puck/Finn friendship, Finn/Quinn friendship, eventual Puck/Quinn, some Finn/Rachel
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 12,000
Status: Complete
Notes/Warnings: And this, my dears, is my contribution to the Puck Big Bang. The plot for this fic was based off of the storyline of an unlaunched Quick RP on tumblr, created by puckfasa and used with their permission. As for WARNINGS? Minor character death.
Summary: Puck could remember the accident, the horror that went through him when he realized the truck was going to hit them and the way Finn grabbed his hand in the moment before the impact. Now, his body is in a coma, Quinn's practically living at the hospital, he's a ghost, Finn's the only one that can see him, and all he can think is that senior year supposed to be like this.
Not Quite An Angel On Your Shoulder (1/2)
Two months later and it all came crashing down.
Quinn was half-way through Breaking Dawn-her latest attempt to try and torture him into waking up-when Finn came in, pale-faced, dazed, and looking like he was about ready to fall over. Puck had watched him from his spot on the floor as Finn’s eyes flickered between her, his body, and him. It was on the tip of his tongue to ask what was wrong, but then Finn was talking. Told her that there had been an accident and that Beth was fine, but Shelby hadn’t made it.
Things were kind of a blur after that and if he wasn’t hovering around Beth and trying to distract her so she wouldn’t start screaming for Shelby, he was floating around Quinn, Finn, or Rachel. The funeral came and went as people cried and whispered about what was going to happen to Beth now.
“It’s not like Shelby had a husband. The child wasn’t even hers.”
Puck glared at the woman and stuck a hand through her head just because he could. He fucking hated people like that. He wanted to scream at them. Tell them that Beth’s DNA had nothing to do with it and that she had been Shelby’s, maybe even more than she’d been Quinn’s and his. Now, Shelby was gone and none of this was fucking okay. He was a ghost and his daughter had just lost the only mother she’d ever known. Rachel was crying into Finn’s chest, mourning the loss of a woman she was only just starting to know. Beth clung to Quinn, crying and yelling for her momma. Fuck him, but the look on Quinn’s face was going to kill him before the coma did. She looked fucking heartbroken every time Beth called for Shelby, whispering to the little girl that everything was going to be okay.
“She loved you, Beth. She did,” Quinn told her as she tried to calm the child. Beth kept crying, though, and she was still crying when Shelby’s lawyer pulled her aside and started talking about Shelby’s will and Beth’s guardian.
Puck listened as closely as he could as the lawyer rambled on about Shelby not wanting Beth to get tossed in the system and that she’d wanted the option to be raised to Beth’s birth parents should anything happen.
“Now, the father. He’s not around anymore?” the lawyer asked and Puck could tell he was trying to sound neutral, but he came off more like a judgmental ass. It didn’t get past Quinn and her eyes narrowed into a glare.
“He’s in a coma,” she replied, sounding just this side of bitchy. The guy kind of deserved it, though, so whatever. “Car accident.”
“Oh.” Yeah. That was it, dude. Feel awkward. Go ahead, Puck thought as the guy fell back into legal-speak. Most of it went right over his head, but by the end, he understood that they could get Beth back. She could be theirs again. They’d signed away their rights when the adoption happened, so there was something about having to officially adopt her or see a judge about reinstating the rights… He didn’t understand completely, but Quinn was nodding and Judy was suddenly by her side, telling the guy that they’d speak to their lawyer.
“Quinnie, you need to think about this,” Judy said as the lawyer disappeared back into the crowd of mourners. “I know you love her, but you gave her up for a reason. You’re going to Yale in the fall. You can’t just throw it all away. You could let someone else adopt her.”
“And never see her again?” Quinn and him seemed to echo the question at the same time. If Beth went into the system, who the fuck knew what would happen? People wanted babies. They wanted tiny little babies that were brand new and… She could grow up in the fucking system. Even if she did get adopted again, there was no way to know if her new parents would let them be a part of her life. They couldn’t just go back to the way things had been. Beth knew them now. They couldn’t just…
“That’s how closed adoptions work,” Judy told her. “That was what you chose.”
“Maybe I made a mistake.”
“Quinn…”
He was going to fucking scream. Quinn and Judy just kept arguing in the corner, angry whispers that wouldn’t stop because both women were too stubborn. He caught sight of Finn across the room, lost in the sea of people he didn’t know while Rachel clung to her fathers.
“I need your help,” he said as he half-jogged up to his friend, casting a glance back at the arguing blondes.
“Kinda hard to talk here,” Finn muttered which, yeah, Puck got. People were gonna think Finn had lost his mind if he started talking to air, but this was important. It was Quinn and it was his fucking kid. He didn’t want to lose Beth again.
“Just help Quinn with her mom. We can get Beth back and she wants Quinn to let her go into the system.” He moved to touch Finn’s arm, but he dropped it when he remembered that it was pointless. “Just… Talk for me or something.”
He must have looked pathetic or something, because Finn didn’t even fight with him about confronting Judy Fabray. The woman kind of scared them both, but Finn walked right up to them, smiling softly at Beth as she reached for him. He took her from Quinn, holding the little girl close as she curled up against him.
“Finn. Excellent,” Judy said. “Please tell Quinn that it would be best for Beth to get adopted again.”
“It’s not up to him, Mom!”
“Actually…” Finn started as he glanced at Puck for a moment. “Uh… Keeping her wouldn’t be, like, bad or anything. If she wanted to, that is. I just… I mean, I know Puck would wanna keep her.”
“The boy has been in a coma for five months. The chances of him waking up at this point-”
“There’s a chance,” Quinn snapped, glaring at her mother.
“It’s almost Christmas, Quinn,” Judy said. “The accident was in July. It might be time to accept that there isn’t anything left.”
“There is,” Finn cut in.
“I don’t think they mean ghosts, dude.”
“It’s Puck,” he continued as if Puck hadn’t said anything. “He’s my best friend. If he was gone, I’d know. Trust me.”
Puck snorted. Yeah. If anyone knew he was still around, it was Finn. Trust the guy to turn some weird cosmic thing into a line that belonged in a chick flick when all he’d had to do was remind Judy that he wasn’t brain dead. His body had been breathing on its own for a while now. Hell, the doctors had said there was brain activity. He just…wasn’t awake.
“That’s very sweet, Finn, but-”
“I’m keeping her.” All eyes turned to Quinn as she silently took Beth back from Finn. She kissed her daughter’s head softly as the child continued to sniffle, too exhausted to cry anymore.
“Quinnie-”
“I’m keeping her.”
Puck’s face split into a relieved smile. “Any chance you’d kiss her for me?” he asked Finn, only half-serious.
Judging from the look Finn shot him when the girls weren’t looking, it was a no.
---
Christmas came and went and, still, Puck’s body remained just as comatose as it had been since the accident. He remained a ghost, floating around the Fabray house and playing with Beth as much as he was able, knowing as he did that Quinn would watch them, never knowing that the empty space Beth would babble at was her father.
He let his hand go through Beth’s belly just because he knew it would make her laugh and tried to ignore the sadness her giggles brought him. With every day that passed, he was getting closer and closer to six months in this stupid coma. Six months of not having a real conversation with anyone except Finn (no offense to the guy). Six months of not sleeping in his own bed. Six months of not sleeping because ghosts don’t sleep. Making it to six months comatose would also bring him to three months of not being able to hold Beth. He was with her every day, playing with her and loving her, but the last time he held her in his arms, she was a newborn and they were in a hospital.
He pulled his hand back as Quinn came in from the kitchen and scooped Beth off the floor. “Lunchtime,” she told their daughter.
He followed them into the kitchen watching from the doorway as Quinn set Beth in her high chair and gave her a plate of cut up hotdogs.
“They’re kosher, Puck. Promise,” she said softly and a little sadly as she ran her fingers through Beth’s hair. “Can you say ‘kosher’, Beth? Make Daddy happy when he wakes up?”
Beth said it, but it ended up coming out sounding more like ‘kosa’ before she turned back to her little hotdog pieces. He didn’t care. It was kind of cute anyway and it made Quinn laugh a bit.
“He takes longer naps than you do,” she mused softly as she took a hotdog slice off the plate and cut it in half again, deeming it too large. “But he loves you. He always has.”
Puck stood there as she continued to talk to Beth, telling her about him and the stupid shit he used to pull. He really regretted swallowing that thumb tack, he thought as he watched them.
They were adjusting. Shelby’s will, a kind judge, a smart lawyer armed with cases from other states, a request to think about Shelby’s wishes and what was best for Beth had all played a part in the judge agreeing to a trial basis. Social workers would be dropping by unannounced for the next few months and assuming things went well, Quinn could get her rights back rather than try to adopt or become a foster parent when she was still legally considered a dependent.
Nothing was perfect. There were still days that Beth did nothing but cry for Shelby, but the counselor Quinn (and Puck, sort of) had been seeing had said that it would change with time. Beth would adjust and the cries for Shelby would stop eventually.
“It’s a big adjustment for everyone. Yourself included.”
The woman had a point. Quinn wasn’t having it easy. Suddenly, she was a full-time mother who was trying to sooth a grieving baby, keep her grades up, and finish her senior year, all at the same time. Forget the fact that her kid’s father was lying in a coma.
Nothing was easy right now.
---
“There has to be something you haven’t tried yet.”
“I’ve done everything I could think of,” Puck said as he paced inside the living room of the otherwise empty house. “I don’t think I’m ever gonna fucking wake up.”
“You will,” he told him, but even Finn wasn’t sure anymore. They were going into March now and although Puck’s injuries had healed, he was still like this. The doctors couldn’t explain why other than their stupid ‘the human mind is an unpredictable thing’ spiel. They were all getting sick of hearing it. Him. Puck. Quinn. Sarah was starting to think Puck was either Snow White or Sleeping Beauty and that he just needed a prince to kiss him awake.
He had to keep reminding her that Puck liked princesses and to stop taking Disney so seriously.
Quinn hadn’t exactly been happy the first time it led to Sarah telling her to kiss Puck because “you’re even better than a princess! You’re a queen!” Still, Finn had seen her kiss Puck’s cheek as he was leaving that day.
This entire situation sucked. Like, it majorly sucked. His best friend was a ghost. He couldn’t tell his girlfriend. Quinn was doing the single mom thing. This wasn’t how senior year was supposed to go. They were supposed to be having the times of their lives before a bunch of them graduated and got the hell out of Lima. Instead, they were living (mostly in Puck’s case) and turning library-time into hospital-time while they sat around Puck’s bed and talked to his body. The others had started the idea back in September and he went along with it, not knowing how to tell them that Puck wasn’t there. Puck was never there at study time.
“It’s bad enough that I’m in a coma. Listening to that shit might just make it worse.”
Puck sighed and stopped his pacing. “You don’t know that.”
He didn’t. That was what made it even worse.
---
“Say hi to Daddy, Beth,” Quinn whispered as she toed the door shut.
“Hi,” the little girl said as she waved, but she waved at the wall instead of at Puck’s comatose form. It never quite made sense to her that Beth did that every time they came, but she didn’t question it as she placed Beth down on the bed, careful to avoid the pulse-reader on Puck’s finger and the IV drip in his hand. Beth seemed to be good about not pulling on them, but it was better to be safe rather than deal with angry nurses. She was lucky they even let her bring Beth in for these weekly visits.
Beth crawled closer to Puck’s face, unable to get onto her feet with the little room she had on the bed, and clapped her hand on his cheek softly. “Ma,” she said as she looked at Quinn. It wasn’t quite ‘mommy’, but Quinn still loved hearing it and she was fine with ‘ma’ for now. It was something.
“Hm?”
Beth looked back at Puck. “Daddy.”
“That’s right, Beth. That’s Daddy.” She placed her hand on Beth’s head, smiling sadly. Puck would have loved to hear that. He would have loved to see her in general.
Beth pointed over to the wall again, smiling. “Daddy.”
She shook her head. “Daddy’s not over there.”
Beth simply stared at her, puzzled. Her perfect imitation of Puck’s face any time he didn’t understand something. Eyebrows furrowed, mouth open a little bit. She was her father’s daughter.
Quinn sighed and touched one of the curls on Puck’s head as Beth went back to poking her father’s cheek. “You’d hate your hair,” she murmured. His hair had grown in so much since the accident. Maybe they should have just kept up with shaving his head, but she thought he looked kind of cute. She hadn’t seen his curls since they were kids.
She pulled at one softly just so she could watch it spring back into place and laughed a little bit. “I’ll shave it off if you wake up,” she told him. “I’ll even give you your mohawk back.” She didn’t get so much as a twitch in response and if she was being honest, she wasn’t expecting one. She’d been trying those little bribes for months and now they were approaching May and nothing had changed. “Only you could sleep through senior year, Puckerman.”
He slept on.
---
“He’s never going to wake up, is he?” Quinn asked, watching as Beth climbed over Puck’s legs.
“He has to,” Finn said as he cast a glance at Puck’s form in the corner.
“We graduate in two weeks, Finn. He’s been like this for ten months. How much longer are we supposed to hope that it’s going to change?”
“He’s still here, Quinn.”
She sighed and stood from her chair, circling around the bed to get her water bottle. “You keep saying that.”
“Maybe Sarah was right about needing a kiss to wake him up,” he said, joking.
She glared at him lightly, shifting Beth away as she got a little too close to the edge of the bed.
“Sarah’s the one that said it.”
“Sarah’s ten.”
Finn shrugged a shoulder. “Weirder shit has happened.”
“Like what?”
Finn’s eyes met Puck’s and he chuckled softly. “Just trust me.”
---
Puck stood in Finn’s room, his hand phasing through the red graduation cap on Finn’s desk. It sucked. It seriously fucking sucked. His friends were graduating in two days and he was still stuck like this. Quinn was going to take Beth with her to Yale. Finn was going off to Georgia for his fucking army training. His best friend was leaving. Quinn was leaving. His daughter was fucking leaving. Then, there was him. Stuck as a ghost while his body lay in a bed, muscles disappearing and weakening despite the exercises the physical therapist did every day.
He was a comatose Lima Loser.
“You are not.”
Puck looked up, not realizing that he’d said it out loud, and shrugged. “Kinda am.”
“You’re in a coma. Kinda hard to apply to college when you can’t hold a pen,” Finn said without looking up from the IM conversation he was having with Rachel, probably talking about the long distance thing they’d promised to make work.
Puck sighed. He knew it was stupid, but he’d been in a coma for almost a fucking year. Eleven months and, yeah, he was starting to lose fucking hope that he was ever going to wake up. Doomed to be a ghost until his body finally kicked the bucket and fuck knows if he’d actually pass on or whatever after that. For all he knew, he was stuck like this forever.
He didn’t want to be a ghost forever. Back when he was a kid, he always used to make jokes and say that it’d be cool. He thought it’d be nice to see what the fuck happened with the world. Not anymore, though.
Being a ghost was lonely.
He just wanted it to be over and he wasn’t even sure what ‘it’ was anymore. The coma. Being stuck like this. Life.
He put his hand through the cap again, roaming around the room because he really didn’t have anything else to do. Finn ignored him for the most part, too focused on whatever him and Rachel were trying to figure out. Maybe it wasn’t the long distance thing. Maybe it was about the four-year engagement Rachel had insisted on when she told Finn yes, telling him that she wanted to finish school first. Honestly, he figured it would turn into a five or six year thing, but he wasn’t gonna tell Finn that.
He stopped in the middle of the room as his vision faltered and his head spun. What the… He felt something in his chest, grasping and pulling, and he gasped Finn’s name, sounding strangled.
“Puck? What the hell?”
“I don’t know. It…. Ow. Ow. This fucking hurts.”
“You’re fading,” Finn said, sounding more than a little freaked out. “Why are you fading?!” Yeah. There was the panic.
“I don’t know!”
“Just… Don’t fade. Can’t you do that?”
Puck shook his head, eyes pressed shut as the pressure in his chest grew. “I don’t think so.” He looked at Finn, scared. Was this it? Had his body finally just given up? Yeah, he was tired of this shit, but did he actually want to die? He had Finn and Quinn and Beth and Sarah. He couldn’t just…
“Puck…”
He didn’t want to die.
He faded anyway.
---
He felt heavy.
The light burned as he tried to open his eyes and he shut them again, groaning softly. Everything felt…weird. He couldn’t move. His body was some mix of numb and too many sensations. Okay. Yeah. This sucked ass.
He could hear a voice in his ear that didn’t sound like Finn. Then, there were more, telling him to open his eyes while a shaking hand held his.
Wait…
He peeked an eye open slowly as the lights dimmed and the burning behind his eyelids ceased. What the… He was lying down which was kind of weird when he remembered that he hadn’t been able to lie down without falling for almost a year.
“Puck…”
He was… This was his hospital room. What…
“Puck, look at me.”
That sounded like Quinn… His head fell to the side, following the voice as much as he could. Yeah. That was Quinn. She stared back at him, smiling and eyes shining a little, but…
Wait.
She was looking at him.
“You can see me?” The words came out scratchy and slurred, hurting a bit because his throat was fucking dry. Kinda made sense. He hadn’t had a sip of water in eleven months.
“Of course I can see you,” she said, laughing softly as the doctors turned his attention over to them, poking and prodding. Asking if anything hurt. How he felt.
“Movin’ feels weird.” A nurse put a cup of water to his mouth, telling him to sip slowly, but he wanted to drink the entire thing in a gulp.
“Yes,” the doctor said, nodding slightly before he went into telling Puck everything he already knew. He’d been in a coma and despite exercises with a physical therapist, his muscles did atrophy. He’d need to continue meeting with someone to build his strength back up, but for now, he’d find his body to be weaker than he remembers it being.
He didn’t say anything, but he thought it might also be because he’d spent the last eleven months weighing as much as air. Not that he was gonna tell the guy that.
After a while, it was just him and Quinn and… Fuck. She wasn’t going to start crying, was she? He didn’t do well with crying girls, especially when they were crying because of him. He took her hand, squeezing softly as he looked up at her. “Hey.”
“Hey,” she whispered back, bottom lip drawn between her teeth as she smiled. “Welcome back.”
“Do me a favor?”
“What?”
“Never fucking read me that Twilight shit again,” he said, groaning like he’d been tortured.
She laughed, something between happy and hysterical. “You heard that?”
“I heard more than you think.”
She just smiled and kissed his cheek. “Either way, I’m happy you’re awake.”
“What? You miss me?” he asked, grinning softly.
“Yes.”
For a few long moments, it was sickeningly sweet as they stared at each other and he brought his hand up to her face. He’d missed her. Fuck. He’d been missing her since they gave Beth up and she stopped speaking to him.
Quinn licked her lips nervously as she stared at him. “I need to tell you something-”
Finn burst into the room a second later, pale and panting as Quinn sprang out of the chair.
“Dude-”
“Finn!”
“You’re awake.” Finn’s face faltered and, fuck, if he sucked at crying girls, he was even worse when it came to the big lug. He wasn’t dealing with that now. He’d been awake for less than an hour.
“Cry and I’ll kick your ass.” The threat fell short considering he barely lifted his head and he started coughing a second later, but whatever. He mumbled a thanks as Quinn handed him his water again, soothing the throat that was apparently still getting used to the talking thing.
“I’ll give you two a minute,” Quinn said as she squeezed his hand gently. “I’m glad you’re awake.” Then, she was slipping past Finn and out of the room. For a minute, he wanted to ask her to stay, but the words didn’t come and he ended up alone with Finn.
“Hey.”
“You woke up.”
Okay. So Finn was doing that dazed, state-the-obvious thing he did when his brain hadn’t caught up with him yet. Alright then. “Yeah.”
“You faded… I thought…”
“I know. Me too.”
They were seriously approaching chick flick levels of sappy, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Finn was starting to blubber and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t feeling a little overwhelmed too. This whole thing was insane. He’d been a fucking ghost and now he wasn’t. He just…
Fuck.
He was awake.
---
Quinn made it as far as the waiting room before she all but fell onto a chair. He was... She couldn't... Dazed, she texted Santana, trusting the other girl to spread the news that Puck was awake, because she wasn’t sure she was quite with-it enough yet to do it herself.
Eleven months. Puck had been comatose for eleven months and he seemed okay. Of course, he was weaker physically, but that was to be expected. Other than that, though, it was him. As far as she could tell, nothing else had changed. There was still a good possibility that he’d sustained some level of brain damage between the accident and the coma, but… God, he was awake. He'd been talking to her and she hadn't realized until then that she'd actually been forgetting what his voice sounded like. She'd forgotten the confusing way his eyes seemed to drift between hazel and brown without ever really deciding on one or the other.
She sighed, suddenly overwhelmed as she sat there, hands cupped over her nose and mouth as she tried to keep herself from crying. She shouldn't be crying, right? The two of them... It was in the past. It was over. She'd put an end to it after the papers were signed and she cut him from her life.
But they had Beth now. Well... She had Beth. She knew she still had to tell him about Shelby and about the accident. He would have to decide if he wanted to be part of Beth's life and, by extension, hers.
She looked back in the direction of his room, smiling softly as the nurses she'd come to know wished her and Puck well. She didn't have the heart to tell them that there was no her and Puck. They'd all been so kind and she knew some of them remembered her from sophomore year, stomach out to there and Puck standing awkwardly at her side because they'd never really been together then. They'd simply floated in that strange in-between, living together, sleeping in the same bed, but no commitment and no promise.
He'd wanted to be with her. She'd been too scared to trust him.
Now... It wasn't possible, right? She couldn't have fallen in love with him all over again while he was in a coma. There was nothing substantial to it. There was nothing but days on end of her sitting with him, reading until she couldn't anymore and watching as Beth climbed on him and called him Daddy. He'd been comatose. They hadn't had a real conversation since she'd given birth.
Even through all that, though, he'd helped her. He'd been lying there unconscious and, somehow, he'd unknowingly managed to save her from the mess she'd been becoming. The accident had acted like a slap in the face, a reminder that she could ignore something and push it away, but the final decision wasn't up to her. It was never up to her. If he'd died, he would have done it without her ever being able to say so many things she wanted to say. She never would have been able to tell him she was sorry for the way she'd treated him when she was pregnant. She’d never get to tell him that she wished she'd let him in enough to try, because he'd been right. They could have been a family and she didn't doubt he would have done everything he could to make sure they were happy.
She never would have gotten to tell him that she'd been in love with him too and that she was starting to think she still was.
The tears came before she realized she was close to shedding them. Then, she was sobbing, happy, grateful sobs as she doubled over in the chair.
He was awake.
He was awake.
She leaned back against the chair, face wet and shoulders still shaking as she raised her fingers to her lips. Maybe Sarah had been right, she thought, casting a little smile in the direction of Puck's hospital room.
Maybe he'd just needed a kiss.
---
Epilogue
"Noah Puckerman!"
Finn called his best friend's name, grinning as Puck took the rolled-up paper and bonked him over the head with it. It wasn't a diploma, but it was close enough. Their little mock-graduation ceremony, months late and with nothing more than Quinn’s old cap and the letter notifying Puck that he'd passed the GED exam.
"Graduating class of one, I declare you now... Well, graduated."
"You are such a fucking dork," Puck said, laughing as Quinn moved his tassel over to the appropriate side before Finn could snatch it to throw. Rachel snapped a picture one-handed as they did it, Beth settled on her hip.
"Yeah. Don't care," Finn replied as he stepped back and let Quinn congratulate her boyfriend properly. He moved over towards Rachel and Beth, giving the little girl a smile as her parents were otherwise occupied. "Someone needs to remind them Quinn said no siblings until after college."
"I think they're sweet," Rachel said. She let Finn take Beth from her, watching as he raised the little girl over his head and spun them a couple times. "They deserve it."
"Yeah."
Finn watched his friends for as long as he could before it would have gotten awkward. They'd all been through hell over the last year. The accident. The coma. Puck haunting his ass for months on end. Shelby. Beth. Looking back, he didn't understand how it was all real. It seemed like some kind of weird dream that couldn't have possibly been real, but it was. He looked at Puck and he knew it was.
Considering everything, Puck had healed up pretty amazingly from the accident. The doctors hadn't been able to detect any brain damage aside from the migraines he seemed to get now, but the doctors were looking at him like he was some kind of medical miracle. He was okay, though. He was working his way through physical therapy to regain the muscle he'd lost while he did his Sleeping Beauty impersonation and he was doing good. Granted, he wasn't perfect yet. The guy still looked a lot smaller than he did before the accident and he still had trouble being active for too long, but he was managing to keep up with Beth.
The little girl laughed as if on cue and he spun them one more time before he handed her back to Rachel. He was gonna miss her when he flew off to Georgia next week. He was going to miss all of them. They were all going to be leaving soon, though. Rachel was heading off to New York the day after him so she could move into her dorm, full of some glittery stationary the guys in Georgia were sure to mock him for and a promise that they were going to write every day. Puck, Quinn, and Beth were going to be moving into their apartment in New Haven in a couple weeks, some small little family he knew Puck had always wanted. Everything was falling into place when, just a few months ago, he'd been sure that he'd just watched Puck die.
Watching him fade had terrified him and he wasn't sure how long he'd stared at the empty space before he had finally snapped out of it and ran for his car. He'd sped the entire way to the hospital, scared that when he got there, there'd be a doctor saying that that he was sorry and that Puck's heart had given out or something. Which… Might have been a stupid fear since he was pretty sure nothing was ever wrong with Puck’s heart, but he’d been scared, okay? He’d just watched his best friend fade into nothing after haunting him for almost a year. But he hadn’t died. He'd gotten there and Puck was fine. He was awake and him and Quinn were doing that staring thing he probably shouldn’t have interrupted, but whatever. He’d needed to see his best friend and the second Quinn had left the room, he'd hugged the guy. Maybe he’d cried a bit. Whatever. Puck didn’t mock him for it and he didn’t mock Puck for doing the same thing.
He smiled as he watched his best friend, knowing that Puck had come a long way in the few months since he'd woken up. He was doing good in physical therapy and there was the eventual decision to study and go for his GED rather than go back for his senior year. Maybe he would have if he hadn't had Quinn and Beth to think about, but he did. He'd flat out refused when Quinn offered to defer her acceptance a year so they could stay in Lima, firm that she wasn’t putting her life on hold so that he could drag his ass through school. The GED seemed like the logical for him to do. Weeks of lessons and cram sessions and here they were, standing in Quinn's back yard and giving Puck his own graduation.
Things were okay now, he thought as Puck and Quinn joined them. Quinn took Beth from Rachel, smiling as Puck dropped the too-big cap onto their daughter’s head.
They were all okay.
The End
Character(s)/Pairing: Puck, Quinn, Finn, Puck/Finn friendship, Finn/Quinn friendship, eventual Puck/Quinn, some Finn/Rachel
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 12,000
Status: Complete
Notes/Warnings: And this, my dears, is my contribution to the Puck Big Bang. The plot for this fic was based off of the storyline of an unlaunched Quick RP on tumblr, created by puckfasa and used with their permission. As for WARNINGS? Minor character death.
Summary: Puck could remember the accident, the horror that went through him when he realized the truck was going to hit them and the way Finn grabbed his hand in the moment before the impact. Now, his body is in a coma, Quinn's practically living at the hospital, he's a ghost, Finn's the only one that can see him, and all he can think is that senior year supposed to be like this.
Not Quite An Angel On Your Shoulder (1/2)
Two months later and it all came crashing down.
Quinn was half-way through Breaking Dawn-her latest attempt to try and torture him into waking up-when Finn came in, pale-faced, dazed, and looking like he was about ready to fall over. Puck had watched him from his spot on the floor as Finn’s eyes flickered between her, his body, and him. It was on the tip of his tongue to ask what was wrong, but then Finn was talking. Told her that there had been an accident and that Beth was fine, but Shelby hadn’t made it.
Things were kind of a blur after that and if he wasn’t hovering around Beth and trying to distract her so she wouldn’t start screaming for Shelby, he was floating around Quinn, Finn, or Rachel. The funeral came and went as people cried and whispered about what was going to happen to Beth now.
“It’s not like Shelby had a husband. The child wasn’t even hers.”
Puck glared at the woman and stuck a hand through her head just because he could. He fucking hated people like that. He wanted to scream at them. Tell them that Beth’s DNA had nothing to do with it and that she had been Shelby’s, maybe even more than she’d been Quinn’s and his. Now, Shelby was gone and none of this was fucking okay. He was a ghost and his daughter had just lost the only mother she’d ever known. Rachel was crying into Finn’s chest, mourning the loss of a woman she was only just starting to know. Beth clung to Quinn, crying and yelling for her momma. Fuck him, but the look on Quinn’s face was going to kill him before the coma did. She looked fucking heartbroken every time Beth called for Shelby, whispering to the little girl that everything was going to be okay.
“She loved you, Beth. She did,” Quinn told her as she tried to calm the child. Beth kept crying, though, and she was still crying when Shelby’s lawyer pulled her aside and started talking about Shelby’s will and Beth’s guardian.
Puck listened as closely as he could as the lawyer rambled on about Shelby not wanting Beth to get tossed in the system and that she’d wanted the option to be raised to Beth’s birth parents should anything happen.
“Now, the father. He’s not around anymore?” the lawyer asked and Puck could tell he was trying to sound neutral, but he came off more like a judgmental ass. It didn’t get past Quinn and her eyes narrowed into a glare.
“He’s in a coma,” she replied, sounding just this side of bitchy. The guy kind of deserved it, though, so whatever. “Car accident.”
“Oh.” Yeah. That was it, dude. Feel awkward. Go ahead, Puck thought as the guy fell back into legal-speak. Most of it went right over his head, but by the end, he understood that they could get Beth back. She could be theirs again. They’d signed away their rights when the adoption happened, so there was something about having to officially adopt her or see a judge about reinstating the rights… He didn’t understand completely, but Quinn was nodding and Judy was suddenly by her side, telling the guy that they’d speak to their lawyer.
“Quinnie, you need to think about this,” Judy said as the lawyer disappeared back into the crowd of mourners. “I know you love her, but you gave her up for a reason. You’re going to Yale in the fall. You can’t just throw it all away. You could let someone else adopt her.”
“And never see her again?” Quinn and him seemed to echo the question at the same time. If Beth went into the system, who the fuck knew what would happen? People wanted babies. They wanted tiny little babies that were brand new and… She could grow up in the fucking system. Even if she did get adopted again, there was no way to know if her new parents would let them be a part of her life. They couldn’t just go back to the way things had been. Beth knew them now. They couldn’t just…
“That’s how closed adoptions work,” Judy told her. “That was what you chose.”
“Maybe I made a mistake.”
“Quinn…”
He was going to fucking scream. Quinn and Judy just kept arguing in the corner, angry whispers that wouldn’t stop because both women were too stubborn. He caught sight of Finn across the room, lost in the sea of people he didn’t know while Rachel clung to her fathers.
“I need your help,” he said as he half-jogged up to his friend, casting a glance back at the arguing blondes.
“Kinda hard to talk here,” Finn muttered which, yeah, Puck got. People were gonna think Finn had lost his mind if he started talking to air, but this was important. It was Quinn and it was his fucking kid. He didn’t want to lose Beth again.
“Just help Quinn with her mom. We can get Beth back and she wants Quinn to let her go into the system.” He moved to touch Finn’s arm, but he dropped it when he remembered that it was pointless. “Just… Talk for me or something.”
He must have looked pathetic or something, because Finn didn’t even fight with him about confronting Judy Fabray. The woman kind of scared them both, but Finn walked right up to them, smiling softly at Beth as she reached for him. He took her from Quinn, holding the little girl close as she curled up against him.
“Finn. Excellent,” Judy said. “Please tell Quinn that it would be best for Beth to get adopted again.”
“It’s not up to him, Mom!”
“Actually…” Finn started as he glanced at Puck for a moment. “Uh… Keeping her wouldn’t be, like, bad or anything. If she wanted to, that is. I just… I mean, I know Puck would wanna keep her.”
“The boy has been in a coma for five months. The chances of him waking up at this point-”
“There’s a chance,” Quinn snapped, glaring at her mother.
“It’s almost Christmas, Quinn,” Judy said. “The accident was in July. It might be time to accept that there isn’t anything left.”
“There is,” Finn cut in.
“I don’t think they mean ghosts, dude.”
“It’s Puck,” he continued as if Puck hadn’t said anything. “He’s my best friend. If he was gone, I’d know. Trust me.”
Puck snorted. Yeah. If anyone knew he was still around, it was Finn. Trust the guy to turn some weird cosmic thing into a line that belonged in a chick flick when all he’d had to do was remind Judy that he wasn’t brain dead. His body had been breathing on its own for a while now. Hell, the doctors had said there was brain activity. He just…wasn’t awake.
“That’s very sweet, Finn, but-”
“I’m keeping her.” All eyes turned to Quinn as she silently took Beth back from Finn. She kissed her daughter’s head softly as the child continued to sniffle, too exhausted to cry anymore.
“Quinnie-”
“I’m keeping her.”
Puck’s face split into a relieved smile. “Any chance you’d kiss her for me?” he asked Finn, only half-serious.
Judging from the look Finn shot him when the girls weren’t looking, it was a no.
---
Christmas came and went and, still, Puck’s body remained just as comatose as it had been since the accident. He remained a ghost, floating around the Fabray house and playing with Beth as much as he was able, knowing as he did that Quinn would watch them, never knowing that the empty space Beth would babble at was her father.
He let his hand go through Beth’s belly just because he knew it would make her laugh and tried to ignore the sadness her giggles brought him. With every day that passed, he was getting closer and closer to six months in this stupid coma. Six months of not having a real conversation with anyone except Finn (no offense to the guy). Six months of not sleeping in his own bed. Six months of not sleeping because ghosts don’t sleep. Making it to six months comatose would also bring him to three months of not being able to hold Beth. He was with her every day, playing with her and loving her, but the last time he held her in his arms, she was a newborn and they were in a hospital.
He pulled his hand back as Quinn came in from the kitchen and scooped Beth off the floor. “Lunchtime,” she told their daughter.
He followed them into the kitchen watching from the doorway as Quinn set Beth in her high chair and gave her a plate of cut up hotdogs.
“They’re kosher, Puck. Promise,” she said softly and a little sadly as she ran her fingers through Beth’s hair. “Can you say ‘kosher’, Beth? Make Daddy happy when he wakes up?”
Beth said it, but it ended up coming out sounding more like ‘kosa’ before she turned back to her little hotdog pieces. He didn’t care. It was kind of cute anyway and it made Quinn laugh a bit.
“He takes longer naps than you do,” she mused softly as she took a hotdog slice off the plate and cut it in half again, deeming it too large. “But he loves you. He always has.”
Puck stood there as she continued to talk to Beth, telling her about him and the stupid shit he used to pull. He really regretted swallowing that thumb tack, he thought as he watched them.
They were adjusting. Shelby’s will, a kind judge, a smart lawyer armed with cases from other states, a request to think about Shelby’s wishes and what was best for Beth had all played a part in the judge agreeing to a trial basis. Social workers would be dropping by unannounced for the next few months and assuming things went well, Quinn could get her rights back rather than try to adopt or become a foster parent when she was still legally considered a dependent.
Nothing was perfect. There were still days that Beth did nothing but cry for Shelby, but the counselor Quinn (and Puck, sort of) had been seeing had said that it would change with time. Beth would adjust and the cries for Shelby would stop eventually.
“It’s a big adjustment for everyone. Yourself included.”
The woman had a point. Quinn wasn’t having it easy. Suddenly, she was a full-time mother who was trying to sooth a grieving baby, keep her grades up, and finish her senior year, all at the same time. Forget the fact that her kid’s father was lying in a coma.
Nothing was easy right now.
---
“There has to be something you haven’t tried yet.”
“I’ve done everything I could think of,” Puck said as he paced inside the living room of the otherwise empty house. “I don’t think I’m ever gonna fucking wake up.”
“You will,” he told him, but even Finn wasn’t sure anymore. They were going into March now and although Puck’s injuries had healed, he was still like this. The doctors couldn’t explain why other than their stupid ‘the human mind is an unpredictable thing’ spiel. They were all getting sick of hearing it. Him. Puck. Quinn. Sarah was starting to think Puck was either Snow White or Sleeping Beauty and that he just needed a prince to kiss him awake.
He had to keep reminding her that Puck liked princesses and to stop taking Disney so seriously.
Quinn hadn’t exactly been happy the first time it led to Sarah telling her to kiss Puck because “you’re even better than a princess! You’re a queen!” Still, Finn had seen her kiss Puck’s cheek as he was leaving that day.
This entire situation sucked. Like, it majorly sucked. His best friend was a ghost. He couldn’t tell his girlfriend. Quinn was doing the single mom thing. This wasn’t how senior year was supposed to go. They were supposed to be having the times of their lives before a bunch of them graduated and got the hell out of Lima. Instead, they were living (mostly in Puck’s case) and turning library-time into hospital-time while they sat around Puck’s bed and talked to his body. The others had started the idea back in September and he went along with it, not knowing how to tell them that Puck wasn’t there. Puck was never there at study time.
“It’s bad enough that I’m in a coma. Listening to that shit might just make it worse.”
Puck sighed and stopped his pacing. “You don’t know that.”
He didn’t. That was what made it even worse.
---
“Say hi to Daddy, Beth,” Quinn whispered as she toed the door shut.
“Hi,” the little girl said as she waved, but she waved at the wall instead of at Puck’s comatose form. It never quite made sense to her that Beth did that every time they came, but she didn’t question it as she placed Beth down on the bed, careful to avoid the pulse-reader on Puck’s finger and the IV drip in his hand. Beth seemed to be good about not pulling on them, but it was better to be safe rather than deal with angry nurses. She was lucky they even let her bring Beth in for these weekly visits.
Beth crawled closer to Puck’s face, unable to get onto her feet with the little room she had on the bed, and clapped her hand on his cheek softly. “Ma,” she said as she looked at Quinn. It wasn’t quite ‘mommy’, but Quinn still loved hearing it and she was fine with ‘ma’ for now. It was something.
“Hm?”
Beth looked back at Puck. “Daddy.”
“That’s right, Beth. That’s Daddy.” She placed her hand on Beth’s head, smiling sadly. Puck would have loved to hear that. He would have loved to see her in general.
Beth pointed over to the wall again, smiling. “Daddy.”
She shook her head. “Daddy’s not over there.”
Beth simply stared at her, puzzled. Her perfect imitation of Puck’s face any time he didn’t understand something. Eyebrows furrowed, mouth open a little bit. She was her father’s daughter.
Quinn sighed and touched one of the curls on Puck’s head as Beth went back to poking her father’s cheek. “You’d hate your hair,” she murmured. His hair had grown in so much since the accident. Maybe they should have just kept up with shaving his head, but she thought he looked kind of cute. She hadn’t seen his curls since they were kids.
She pulled at one softly just so she could watch it spring back into place and laughed a little bit. “I’ll shave it off if you wake up,” she told him. “I’ll even give you your mohawk back.” She didn’t get so much as a twitch in response and if she was being honest, she wasn’t expecting one. She’d been trying those little bribes for months and now they were approaching May and nothing had changed. “Only you could sleep through senior year, Puckerman.”
He slept on.
---
“He’s never going to wake up, is he?” Quinn asked, watching as Beth climbed over Puck’s legs.
“He has to,” Finn said as he cast a glance at Puck’s form in the corner.
“We graduate in two weeks, Finn. He’s been like this for ten months. How much longer are we supposed to hope that it’s going to change?”
“He’s still here, Quinn.”
She sighed and stood from her chair, circling around the bed to get her water bottle. “You keep saying that.”
“Maybe Sarah was right about needing a kiss to wake him up,” he said, joking.
She glared at him lightly, shifting Beth away as she got a little too close to the edge of the bed.
“Sarah’s the one that said it.”
“Sarah’s ten.”
Finn shrugged a shoulder. “Weirder shit has happened.”
“Like what?”
Finn’s eyes met Puck’s and he chuckled softly. “Just trust me.”
---
Puck stood in Finn’s room, his hand phasing through the red graduation cap on Finn’s desk. It sucked. It seriously fucking sucked. His friends were graduating in two days and he was still stuck like this. Quinn was going to take Beth with her to Yale. Finn was going off to Georgia for his fucking army training. His best friend was leaving. Quinn was leaving. His daughter was fucking leaving. Then, there was him. Stuck as a ghost while his body lay in a bed, muscles disappearing and weakening despite the exercises the physical therapist did every day.
He was a comatose Lima Loser.
“You are not.”
Puck looked up, not realizing that he’d said it out loud, and shrugged. “Kinda am.”
“You’re in a coma. Kinda hard to apply to college when you can’t hold a pen,” Finn said without looking up from the IM conversation he was having with Rachel, probably talking about the long distance thing they’d promised to make work.
Puck sighed. He knew it was stupid, but he’d been in a coma for almost a fucking year. Eleven months and, yeah, he was starting to lose fucking hope that he was ever going to wake up. Doomed to be a ghost until his body finally kicked the bucket and fuck knows if he’d actually pass on or whatever after that. For all he knew, he was stuck like this forever.
He didn’t want to be a ghost forever. Back when he was a kid, he always used to make jokes and say that it’d be cool. He thought it’d be nice to see what the fuck happened with the world. Not anymore, though.
Being a ghost was lonely.
He just wanted it to be over and he wasn’t even sure what ‘it’ was anymore. The coma. Being stuck like this. Life.
He put his hand through the cap again, roaming around the room because he really didn’t have anything else to do. Finn ignored him for the most part, too focused on whatever him and Rachel were trying to figure out. Maybe it wasn’t the long distance thing. Maybe it was about the four-year engagement Rachel had insisted on when she told Finn yes, telling him that she wanted to finish school first. Honestly, he figured it would turn into a five or six year thing, but he wasn’t gonna tell Finn that.
He stopped in the middle of the room as his vision faltered and his head spun. What the… He felt something in his chest, grasping and pulling, and he gasped Finn’s name, sounding strangled.
“Puck? What the hell?”
“I don’t know. It…. Ow. Ow. This fucking hurts.”
“You’re fading,” Finn said, sounding more than a little freaked out. “Why are you fading?!” Yeah. There was the panic.
“I don’t know!”
“Just… Don’t fade. Can’t you do that?”
Puck shook his head, eyes pressed shut as the pressure in his chest grew. “I don’t think so.” He looked at Finn, scared. Was this it? Had his body finally just given up? Yeah, he was tired of this shit, but did he actually want to die? He had Finn and Quinn and Beth and Sarah. He couldn’t just…
“Puck…”
He didn’t want to die.
He faded anyway.
---
He felt heavy.
The light burned as he tried to open his eyes and he shut them again, groaning softly. Everything felt…weird. He couldn’t move. His body was some mix of numb and too many sensations. Okay. Yeah. This sucked ass.
He could hear a voice in his ear that didn’t sound like Finn. Then, there were more, telling him to open his eyes while a shaking hand held his.
Wait…
He peeked an eye open slowly as the lights dimmed and the burning behind his eyelids ceased. What the… He was lying down which was kind of weird when he remembered that he hadn’t been able to lie down without falling for almost a year.
“Puck…”
He was… This was his hospital room. What…
“Puck, look at me.”
That sounded like Quinn… His head fell to the side, following the voice as much as he could. Yeah. That was Quinn. She stared back at him, smiling and eyes shining a little, but…
Wait.
She was looking at him.
“You can see me?” The words came out scratchy and slurred, hurting a bit because his throat was fucking dry. Kinda made sense. He hadn’t had a sip of water in eleven months.
“Of course I can see you,” she said, laughing softly as the doctors turned his attention over to them, poking and prodding. Asking if anything hurt. How he felt.
“Movin’ feels weird.” A nurse put a cup of water to his mouth, telling him to sip slowly, but he wanted to drink the entire thing in a gulp.
“Yes,” the doctor said, nodding slightly before he went into telling Puck everything he already knew. He’d been in a coma and despite exercises with a physical therapist, his muscles did atrophy. He’d need to continue meeting with someone to build his strength back up, but for now, he’d find his body to be weaker than he remembers it being.
He didn’t say anything, but he thought it might also be because he’d spent the last eleven months weighing as much as air. Not that he was gonna tell the guy that.
After a while, it was just him and Quinn and… Fuck. She wasn’t going to start crying, was she? He didn’t do well with crying girls, especially when they were crying because of him. He took her hand, squeezing softly as he looked up at her. “Hey.”
“Hey,” she whispered back, bottom lip drawn between her teeth as she smiled. “Welcome back.”
“Do me a favor?”
“What?”
“Never fucking read me that Twilight shit again,” he said, groaning like he’d been tortured.
She laughed, something between happy and hysterical. “You heard that?”
“I heard more than you think.”
She just smiled and kissed his cheek. “Either way, I’m happy you’re awake.”
“What? You miss me?” he asked, grinning softly.
“Yes.”
For a few long moments, it was sickeningly sweet as they stared at each other and he brought his hand up to her face. He’d missed her. Fuck. He’d been missing her since they gave Beth up and she stopped speaking to him.
Quinn licked her lips nervously as she stared at him. “I need to tell you something-”
Finn burst into the room a second later, pale and panting as Quinn sprang out of the chair.
“Dude-”
“Finn!”
“You’re awake.” Finn’s face faltered and, fuck, if he sucked at crying girls, he was even worse when it came to the big lug. He wasn’t dealing with that now. He’d been awake for less than an hour.
“Cry and I’ll kick your ass.” The threat fell short considering he barely lifted his head and he started coughing a second later, but whatever. He mumbled a thanks as Quinn handed him his water again, soothing the throat that was apparently still getting used to the talking thing.
“I’ll give you two a minute,” Quinn said as she squeezed his hand gently. “I’m glad you’re awake.” Then, she was slipping past Finn and out of the room. For a minute, he wanted to ask her to stay, but the words didn’t come and he ended up alone with Finn.
“Hey.”
“You woke up.”
Okay. So Finn was doing that dazed, state-the-obvious thing he did when his brain hadn’t caught up with him yet. Alright then. “Yeah.”
“You faded… I thought…”
“I know. Me too.”
They were seriously approaching chick flick levels of sappy, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Finn was starting to blubber and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t feeling a little overwhelmed too. This whole thing was insane. He’d been a fucking ghost and now he wasn’t. He just…
Fuck.
He was awake.
---
Quinn made it as far as the waiting room before she all but fell onto a chair. He was... She couldn't... Dazed, she texted Santana, trusting the other girl to spread the news that Puck was awake, because she wasn’t sure she was quite with-it enough yet to do it herself.
Eleven months. Puck had been comatose for eleven months and he seemed okay. Of course, he was weaker physically, but that was to be expected. Other than that, though, it was him. As far as she could tell, nothing else had changed. There was still a good possibility that he’d sustained some level of brain damage between the accident and the coma, but… God, he was awake. He'd been talking to her and she hadn't realized until then that she'd actually been forgetting what his voice sounded like. She'd forgotten the confusing way his eyes seemed to drift between hazel and brown without ever really deciding on one or the other.
She sighed, suddenly overwhelmed as she sat there, hands cupped over her nose and mouth as she tried to keep herself from crying. She shouldn't be crying, right? The two of them... It was in the past. It was over. She'd put an end to it after the papers were signed and she cut him from her life.
But they had Beth now. Well... She had Beth. She knew she still had to tell him about Shelby and about the accident. He would have to decide if he wanted to be part of Beth's life and, by extension, hers.
She looked back in the direction of his room, smiling softly as the nurses she'd come to know wished her and Puck well. She didn't have the heart to tell them that there was no her and Puck. They'd all been so kind and she knew some of them remembered her from sophomore year, stomach out to there and Puck standing awkwardly at her side because they'd never really been together then. They'd simply floated in that strange in-between, living together, sleeping in the same bed, but no commitment and no promise.
He'd wanted to be with her. She'd been too scared to trust him.
Now... It wasn't possible, right? She couldn't have fallen in love with him all over again while he was in a coma. There was nothing substantial to it. There was nothing but days on end of her sitting with him, reading until she couldn't anymore and watching as Beth climbed on him and called him Daddy. He'd been comatose. They hadn't had a real conversation since she'd given birth.
Even through all that, though, he'd helped her. He'd been lying there unconscious and, somehow, he'd unknowingly managed to save her from the mess she'd been becoming. The accident had acted like a slap in the face, a reminder that she could ignore something and push it away, but the final decision wasn't up to her. It was never up to her. If he'd died, he would have done it without her ever being able to say so many things she wanted to say. She never would have been able to tell him she was sorry for the way she'd treated him when she was pregnant. She’d never get to tell him that she wished she'd let him in enough to try, because he'd been right. They could have been a family and she didn't doubt he would have done everything he could to make sure they were happy.
She never would have gotten to tell him that she'd been in love with him too and that she was starting to think she still was.
The tears came before she realized she was close to shedding them. Then, she was sobbing, happy, grateful sobs as she doubled over in the chair.
He was awake.
He was awake.
She leaned back against the chair, face wet and shoulders still shaking as she raised her fingers to her lips. Maybe Sarah had been right, she thought, casting a little smile in the direction of Puck's hospital room.
Maybe he'd just needed a kiss.
---
Epilogue
"Noah Puckerman!"
Finn called his best friend's name, grinning as Puck took the rolled-up paper and bonked him over the head with it. It wasn't a diploma, but it was close enough. Their little mock-graduation ceremony, months late and with nothing more than Quinn’s old cap and the letter notifying Puck that he'd passed the GED exam.
"Graduating class of one, I declare you now... Well, graduated."
"You are such a fucking dork," Puck said, laughing as Quinn moved his tassel over to the appropriate side before Finn could snatch it to throw. Rachel snapped a picture one-handed as they did it, Beth settled on her hip.
"Yeah. Don't care," Finn replied as he stepped back and let Quinn congratulate her boyfriend properly. He moved over towards Rachel and Beth, giving the little girl a smile as her parents were otherwise occupied. "Someone needs to remind them Quinn said no siblings until after college."
"I think they're sweet," Rachel said. She let Finn take Beth from her, watching as he raised the little girl over his head and spun them a couple times. "They deserve it."
"Yeah."
Finn watched his friends for as long as he could before it would have gotten awkward. They'd all been through hell over the last year. The accident. The coma. Puck haunting his ass for months on end. Shelby. Beth. Looking back, he didn't understand how it was all real. It seemed like some kind of weird dream that couldn't have possibly been real, but it was. He looked at Puck and he knew it was.
Considering everything, Puck had healed up pretty amazingly from the accident. The doctors hadn't been able to detect any brain damage aside from the migraines he seemed to get now, but the doctors were looking at him like he was some kind of medical miracle. He was okay, though. He was working his way through physical therapy to regain the muscle he'd lost while he did his Sleeping Beauty impersonation and he was doing good. Granted, he wasn't perfect yet. The guy still looked a lot smaller than he did before the accident and he still had trouble being active for too long, but he was managing to keep up with Beth.
The little girl laughed as if on cue and he spun them one more time before he handed her back to Rachel. He was gonna miss her when he flew off to Georgia next week. He was going to miss all of them. They were all going to be leaving soon, though. Rachel was heading off to New York the day after him so she could move into her dorm, full of some glittery stationary the guys in Georgia were sure to mock him for and a promise that they were going to write every day. Puck, Quinn, and Beth were going to be moving into their apartment in New Haven in a couple weeks, some small little family he knew Puck had always wanted. Everything was falling into place when, just a few months ago, he'd been sure that he'd just watched Puck die.
Watching him fade had terrified him and he wasn't sure how long he'd stared at the empty space before he had finally snapped out of it and ran for his car. He'd sped the entire way to the hospital, scared that when he got there, there'd be a doctor saying that that he was sorry and that Puck's heart had given out or something. Which… Might have been a stupid fear since he was pretty sure nothing was ever wrong with Puck’s heart, but he’d been scared, okay? He’d just watched his best friend fade into nothing after haunting him for almost a year. But he hadn’t died. He'd gotten there and Puck was fine. He was awake and him and Quinn were doing that staring thing he probably shouldn’t have interrupted, but whatever. He’d needed to see his best friend and the second Quinn had left the room, he'd hugged the guy. Maybe he’d cried a bit. Whatever. Puck didn’t mock him for it and he didn’t mock Puck for doing the same thing.
He smiled as he watched his best friend, knowing that Puck had come a long way in the few months since he'd woken up. He was doing good in physical therapy and there was the eventual decision to study and go for his GED rather than go back for his senior year. Maybe he would have if he hadn't had Quinn and Beth to think about, but he did. He'd flat out refused when Quinn offered to defer her acceptance a year so they could stay in Lima, firm that she wasn’t putting her life on hold so that he could drag his ass through school. The GED seemed like the logical for him to do. Weeks of lessons and cram sessions and here they were, standing in Quinn's back yard and giving Puck his own graduation.
Things were okay now, he thought as Puck and Quinn joined them. Quinn took Beth from Rachel, smiling as Puck dropped the too-big cap onto their daughter’s head.
They were all okay.
The End