[ARRIVAL, TAG PUCK] "Reminisce some time, the night they took my friend."

[gotstarpower]

Who: Mercedes Jones and Noah Puckerman
Where: The beach, just near the resort
Time of Day: Late evening
Open or Closed: Closed

Mercedes heart was pounding harder and more fast in her chest than it ever had. She felt like she was going to have a heart attack, but it was just adrenaline and shock. Total and utter shock. Unlike anything she had ever felt before. There was a ringing in her ears too. She just stood there watching the younger ER doctor adorned in light blue scrubs as he continued to speak, but it was like nothing was commuting anymore. She clung to Puck's side, her fingers sunk into his arm in a vice-like grip as her legs began to feel like jelly. Puck had paled beyond belief. He didn't even look just sick, he looked like he was going to pass out. In fact, it was right that minute as Mercedes dark eyes flicked to Puck's face to check if he was okay, that Puck did just that. He slumped hard in against her and her arms closed around him, catching him before he fell. The doctor reached out to help, but as Mercedes stumbled under the added weight to her legs, she didn't fall to the cold, hard linoleum ground of the Lima Emergency Room, her knees fell to warm sand and the sound and scent of the ocean lapping engulf her senses, capturing the nauseating sterile hospital smell and evaporating it.

A reflexive stunned gasp fell from her lips. It was night time, but the hospital was gone. Puck was gone, the doctor was gone. On god, the shock of what had just happened hit her like a tonne of bricks and horrified sob escaped her and echoed through the sea air. "PUCK!" she screamed out, looking around frantically with another panicked sob. What the hell was going on?

Comments

[alloriginalgradeabadass]

The beach was sometimes the only place that Puck could come to think. Granted, most of the time, there were people around, but generally, they were involved in their own worlds, and left him alone. It wasn't as if Puck hadn't managed to make a lot of friends on the island, and there were definitely times when someone would greet him, or make polite conversation, but it was relatively quiet this evening. He was sitting a little way down the beach, right at the shore, where the ocean lapped gently against his bare feet. It had been several days since what would've been Kurt and Blaine's anniversary, and Puck honestly wasn't sure why it was getting to him so much worse this time than before... Maybe it was because Kurt was there, and had been for a while now, and Puck could see the pain in him... It had definitely gotten worse for Puck since Kurt arrived. There was an all-encompassing need in Puck to protect Kurt from the truth. Not because he didn't think Kurt had a right to it, but because he owed it to Blaine. Blaine, his best friend who he fucking missed every goddamn day. Blaine, the guy he'd trusted with any and everything for as long as he could remember. Puck was getting a lot closer to 30 than he would've liked to admit. At least in island time. There was no way of knowing how old his reality-self was right now. Or if there even was a comparable "right now" to the island's "right now." But either way. The fact was simple... Before everything changed with the ill-fated wedding day? Blaine had been his best friend. And he wasn't anymore... wasn't even there. No matter how angry Blaine had gotten, how badly he'd fought to push Puck away? Puck had never given up on him. Maybe that was what made it so hard. Not knowing what had happened after that. Had things gotten better? Were he and Blaine okay now? He'd always imagined this life where he and Blaine were both happily married, and making plans for their kids to marry each other, but the sad fact was, it didn't fucking matter. It never had, from the moment Kurt had breathed his last. Blaine would never love anyone else. There would be no surrogate babies of awesome for Klaine, and Puck and Quinn hadn't ever gotten around to starting a family of their own. It was never going to be what he'd dreamed of. Not now.

In the midst of the sounds of waves, and people talking off in the distance, and the random dog barking, Puck was completely lost in his own thoughts. Thoughts that left his heart heavy and broken. It had been forever since he'd gotten to the island. And his wife had arrived years later, but much younger, and there was still something strange to him about seeing her with Nick. It was just mind-blowing how different this whole situation was to the life that he knew, and sometimes, even after all this time? That was depressing.

As lost as he was in his own thoughts, it was a sharp jolt back to reality when he heard a familiar, if strained and broken voice calling his name in the distance. Glancing up from where he was, he could see... Holy shit, was that Mercedes? Pushing himself up from the ground, he took off at a full sprint down the beach to where she was, still on her knees, sobbing uncontrollably. "Mercedes," he said, looking down at the new arrival, and trying to figure out for the life of him why she would immediately call for him at her arrival and not someone else, like Quinn. Unless... Fuck, unless she came from later than he did, and something happened to Quinn. "Mercedes, I'm here, okay... Listen, this place is real, and you're okay... It's all going to be okay."