Everybody Loves a Winner

Verse Description:  AU from 3x08 Hold On to Sixteen.  Rachel(ineedapplause) confronts Puck(countpuckula) about him and Shelby sleeping together only to discover that this sex shark is in danger of sinking.

Scene Index:
001.  Rumor Has It - Rachel confronts Puck about sleeping with Shelby.
002.  Gone, Baby, Gone - Shelby lets Puck down and not that easily.
003.  I'll Have a Blue Christmas - The Glee Club celebrates Christmas

There had been a two hour layover in Boston when she had thought about calling her dads, Kurt or maybe even Finn. Not that Finn would've picked up. It'd been two months since she'd talked to her estranged boyfriend, or fiance, depending on how you interpreted two months of radio silence while you were dealing with Cassandra July, the biggest bitch that ever debuted on Broadway. She knew that he was going through basic training and understood that contact was limited, but it was becoming more and more obvious with every passing day that long distance was the death sentence that everyone had told them that it would be.

Still, she missed him. She missed Lima and she missed her friends. She missed being the most talented person in the room, or at least in the top five. She hadn't been picked to perform once yet at NAYADA, despite the fact that she practiced more than she ever had in high school. The only times she'd actually been able to sing had been five second snippets here or there or as backup to the sophomores. She needed a break. She needed to go somewhere where she wouldn't be told on a daily basis that she sucked.

Which is why it was such a relief when she stepped off the plane at LAX. She was a stranger here. She could stand out or blend in just as much as she wanted to and not one person would call her David Schwimmer or Schwimmer or any combination thereof. She stopped briefly to buy some flowers at a little shop in the airport, because it felt like a grown up thing to do and Rachel forgot far too often that she was a grown up now. Then she'd gotten a cab and given him the address that she'd seen in one of Finn's emails. What? They had almost been practically married, she was allowed to read his emails.


Thirty minutes later the cab pulled up in front of a run down apartment building. Rachel looked at it speculatively for a long moment before the cabbie asked her if she was going to get out. She tipped him as he got out her bags and made her way up the crumbling sidewalk, her flats clicking purposefully. She stopped in front of 1211B, smoothing down her hair with one hand and plastering on a big smile as she rang the doorbell. The moment the door opened she shoved the flowers in the face of the occupant.

"For you," she said, matter-of-factly with a touch of maniac cheer. She gestured Puck forward, even as she stepped onto the threshold. "Don't just stand there, give me a hug."

Rachel had finally had enough. Thanks to stuffing the ballot box she now had an unforgivable stain on her perfect permanent record. She had been suspended and banned from competing in Sectionals when the New Directions needed her most to fight their traitors. Sam, sweet Sam, had been dancing for ladies in Kentucky and while it was true that she and Finn had saved him she couldn't help but keep thinking about his dire circumstances alone and in need of money so far from Lima. She would be in that boat soon, especially if she couldn't get into NYADA, and even if by some miracle she still did Kurt would not be going with her. She needed her best Gay. She was destined for New York and she would get there no matter what it took, but the truth was the closer that her time at McKinley came to an end the more that she realized she didn't want to go alone. She was terrified. Sure she was the star here, but what about New York? Her conversation with Shelby had haunted her for days. Shelby's talent hadn't been enough when it was pitted against the accomplished girls who had been from programs like NYADA. Her dreams, her life, was hanging in the balance and as much as she'd tried to hold her head high, breathe deeply and soldier on there had been one thing that had sent her over the edge.

Quinn. No, not Quinn. Quinn had only been the insane and slightly scary messenger. Puck was the one that was to blame for sending her over the edge. As if she didn't have more than enough to deal with she now had the knowledge that he was sleeping with her biological mother. It was so wrong. So gross. And yet somehow she wasn't surprised at all by his actions. How many times had she heard him brag about the MILFs his pool cleaning had serviced? She should've seen it on her own, really. What with Hot for Teacher and the intent way that he'd stared at Shelby when he sang I'm the Only One. Still she had never imagined in a hundred years that he would seriously throw himself at her biological mother. How had he managed to break through the cool exterior that Rachel had tried to hard to break herself in the past? If what Quinn had said was true - and Rachel wasn't entirely sure it was - then he had somehow seduced her and lowered her to his ways. The adopted mother of his child!

The longer she stood just outside the choir room with her arms crossed angrily over her chest the more stewed over the situation she became. She had messed up by stuffing the ballot box. She had fallen to a new low and she knew that, but this? She had never done anything as low as this. What was Puck thinking? How dare he think that he could take advantage of Shelby like that? Who did he think he was?

She looked up as he sauntered down the hallway, the last to arrive before Sectionals. She narrowed her eyes as he approached, reaching out and grabbing the lapels of his white tux and tugging him into the nearest empty classroom. She moved to block the door, crossing her arms over her chest, her tone terse. "Tell me it's not true."