A/N: Welcome to Chapter 2(ish)! Thank you so much for all of the reviews for Chapter 1! They were really a very pleasant surprise. I wanted to have this chapter out earlier but I was having some problems figuring out exactly how to make it work. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoy it! Xoxo-Katie

Disclaimer: I don't own Glee.

He pulled up in front of her house and killed the engine. Puck was having second thoughts about his whole plan and started coming up with excuses and reasons not to leave his car. Maybe she's not home, he told himself. Or maybe she doesn't feel the same. The second part was a lie and he knew it. Ever since she came over to his house the previous week, nothing had been the same between them. She wanted to break things off with Sam, had not even asked for the ring back yet, but her boyfriend was out of town for the holidays. She had told Pcuk that she couldn't break up with someone over the phone and he respected that so they laid low. Before he knew what hit him, he was sitting outside of her house on Christmas Eve. He could see a huge Christmas tree set up in the front picture window and he felt even more foolish for driving all the way over there that night. He pulled a bit of courage from somewhere, grabbed his present off of the passenger seat and headed for the front door. After ringing the doorbell, he hoped like hell that her mother didn't answer the door. He wasn't sure, but he had a feeling that she still didn't think very highly of him.

Quinn was surprised to hear the doorbell ring that late at night. She had been getting ready to go to midnight mass with her mother for Christmas Eve and was already dressed in her red and black lace dress with a matching cardigan and was putting the finishing touches on her makeup. She called into her mom's bedroom to let her know that she would get the door and then ran down the stairs, half expecting to be met by a very late last minute delivery of some kind or a group of caroler. She was genuinely surprised to see Puck standing in front of her, holding a very familiar miniature Christmas true. Her mouth fell open as he began to speak, both of their minds recalling the events of the previous year.

XXXXX

"You were up early," Quinn said and sat at the kitchen table with her breakfast.

"Yeah, sorry if I woke you up," he replied, pouring himself a cup of coffee. "My Nana called and asked if I would shovel her driveway and front walk. It snowed last night."

She nodded and played with her cereal, hardly noticing that he took a seat across from her. He always kind of liked it when they had breakfast together. It was something families did in the old TV shows he used to watch when he was a kid. Usually Quinn was more talkative, but he could tell something was bothering her. She had been living with Puck and his family for just over three weeks and they had settled into an easy routine. Quinn had even shed her shell and began to treat his house as her own, something his mother had told her to do time and time again. During the first week she stayed mainly in Puck's room which she shared and camped out on the safety of his bed, making excuses that she needed to study for their upcoming finals. After the next two weeks, mostly thanks to Puck's little sister Sara, Quinn grew more comfortable with the family that had opened their home to her, including Puck.

Honestly, she couldn't explain her feelings for him. She did care about him but she was still getting over her relationship with Finn and she was thankful that Puck gave her the distance and time she needed to sort herself out.

"Whatcha thinking about?" he ventured and attempted to capture her gaze.

"Hmm?" she asked, looking up her bowl. "Oh, nothing. Just…thinking, I guess."

He'd never tell anyone, but he loved the way she looked in the morning and that day was no exception. She was in a pair of black sweatpants, one of his t-shirts that she had stolen the previous week with a giggle, with a grey zip-up fleece thrown over it. Sometimes, her hair would be up, but that day it was down, still a little messy and there was something about it that he really liked. It was natural and he felt just a little bit special that she allowed him to see her like that. He contemplated asking her another question and changed his mind as he stood to place his cup in the sink, stopping to take her bowl and glass along the way.

As he rinsed the dishes, Puck glanced over to the calendar posted on the fridge to see when his mom and sister were coming back to town and he realized that the day's date was December 24th. He may have been Jewish, but he didn't have to be a genius to know that December 24th was Christmas Eve. He knew it was coming up but he frequently lost track of the date when he wasn't writing in his notebook everyday at school. It didn't take him long to realize that Quinn's sullen melancholy was most likely associated with the upcoming holiday. He felt a wave of sympathy wash over him. 'Damn,' he thought. 'Today is the eve of one of the awesomest holidays for Jesus lovers and she has to spend it with a Jew'. Looking back at Quinn's slouched form at the table he knew he had to do something to make the day a little more special for her.

XXXXX

"Hey," Puck said, poking his head around the door to his bedroom. Quinn was lying on the bed, watching TV and she jumped a little at the sound of his voice. "Sorry."

"What are you doing?" she asked, propping herself up a bit to see what he was up to.

"I've got something for you, but I want you to sit up and close your eyes." She looked at him skeptically for a moment so he threw in a 'please' for good measure.

"You'd better not come in here without any clothes on…again," she warned him while reluctantly doing what he asked.

"I told you, last time my towel slipped. Don't worry, I'm fully clothed. You can't open your eyes until I say so."

She could hear rustling and some mild cursing going on in the corner of the room but had no clue what Puck was up to. Out of habit, she sighed impatiently and had to force herself not to peak. "Can I look yet?"

"No," he replied and fiddled with her surprise a little more.

"Now?" she asked no more than five seconds later just to irritate him.

"Ouch, stupid fucker," he muttered under his breath. "NO!"

"What about now?"

"Jesus, Quinn, I swear-."

"OK, fine, I'm sorry. I won't ask anymore."

"Well, you don't have to because it's almost ready," he said and she could tell that he was standing very close to her. "Now, take my hand and stand up so I can take you to it."

Quinn complied without protest and cautiously took a few steps in the direction Puck was leading her in before he stopped her and turned her body ever so slightly. He let go of her hand and tinkered with something for a bit longer as she stood behind him with her eyes still shut tightly.

"OK, open them," he said while at the same time switching on the lights of a small Christmas tree. Quinn opened her eyes and felt her mouth fall open as she stared at the illumined little tree. It was no more than three feet tall, but Puck had set it up on a TV tray and wrapped a red plaid shirt of his around the base. It was strung from top to bottom with colored lights that added a warm glow to the room, but there were no ornaments on the branches yet.

"Oh Puck," she whispered, unable to find other words or tear her eyes away from the tree.

"I'm not a Christmas tree expert, or a Christmas expert either, but I know they're important and it's Christmas Eve and I just thought that you deserved to have a tree. I didn't know if you wanted white or colored lights so I put the colored ones on, but I'll change them if you-."

"It's perfect," Quinn said, cutting Puck off and surprising him by throwing her arms around his neck. He folded his arms around her, drinking in the scent of her hair and enjoying the feeling of her little belly pressed against his stomach.

"So, I guess that means you like it?" he asked.

"I love it."

"Good. It's not done though. I got some little ornaments and a star for the top. It'd be more badass if it was a Star of David, but the lady at the store looked at me funny when I asked her about it. Doesn't she know that baby Jesus was a Jew?"

"Do you think you could help me decorate it?" she suggested.

"Yeah, I think I can do that."

Quinn and Puck spent the next half of an hour placing the little colored orbs onto the tree. He reached into the bag and pulled out the small gold star, handing it to her.

"You do it," Quinn told him, leaving out the fact that her dad always used to put their star on top because the moment was too wonderful to ruin with sad memories. Puck nodded and smiled as he placed the star onto the highest branch. He stepped back to admire the work they'd done, surprised that she let him place his arms around her waist and even rested her head back against his shoulder.

"Thank you, Puck," she said, squeezing one of his hands gently. Even though he couldn't see her face, he could tell by her voice that she was smiling and he knew that his mission was accomplished.

"No proble,m Quinn. It's a good thing my mom and sister are gone for a few days, but we'll have to make sure the door is closed anytime you want to have it on."

"When I was little, my parents used to let me sleep in the living room the night we put up our tree and they would leave it on all night."

"We can do that."

"Puck, you really don't know how much this means to me."

"I think I have a little bit of an idea."

They ended up ordering Chinese food, a Puckerman Christmas tradition, and ate it on his bed so Quinn could enjoy the tree as much as possible. Puck let her flip through the channels and was thankful that she passed up most of the sappy black and white Christmas movies and settled for one that he was at least familiar with because it's more recent.

"Do you mind if we watch Elf?" she asked, certain that he wouldn't tell her 'no'.

"Sure," he agreed. "Will Ferrell's pretty funny. Actually, any dude in tights is pretty funny."

Puck tried really hard not to notice the way she leaned closer to him during the movie because it was easier for him to believe that she wasn't interesting in him like that, even if it wasn't true. He hated himself for causing her so much pain, but then she would laugh or smile at him and he remembered all over again why he did everything he did and he wasn't quite as sorry. Still, the last thing he wanted to do was to push her away, again. In the meantime, he thought he could be patient and kept doing nice little things like making her Christmas special to try and win her over.

Quinn wasn't sure what part of the movie she fell asleep during but it must have been sometime after Buddy ate spaghetti and syrup because she woke up with an intense craving for just that. Until then, she had been really careful to put her usual favorites on the weekly shopping list or picked them up herself, but she'd never really had a craving that strange before. She looked over to Puck and found that he was still asleep. He had both arms tucked behind his head, his lips slightly pushed out in a pout. In the pleasant glimmer from the tree, his tan face was even more attractive and his angular jaw appeared softer, kinder. If she told anyone from school about the things Puck had done for her that day, or lately for that matter, they'd never believe her. She could tell he was putting forth an effort, although it was a quiet and often unspoken one.

It really was the little things that meant so much to Quinn. He gave her the good pillow, got up first to shower so that she could sleep longer, kept a careful eye on her when they walked out to his truck to make sure that she didn't slip on the ice and now he had turned what started off as a bad day into one of the most memorable Christmas Eves ever. Because of all of that, she really didn't want to wake him, but when her stomach rumbled she knew the craving wouldn't go away anytime soon. She sat up slightly and shook Puck gently.

"Mmm, Quinn," he mumbled almost incoherently in his sleep. "I'll keep you warm, baby."

She was taken aback and more than slightly amused that it sounded like he was dreaming of her. Sure, she had dreamt of him, but she just attributed that to her crazy hormones. She nudged him more firmly and called his name to try and coax him from his sleep.

"Hmmm, what? I'm up! Is the tree on fire?" Puck asked, clearly startled.

"No, it's fine," Quinn replied, stifling a laugh.

"What's going on? Are you feeling OK?"

"I'm fine, just…hungry, or I should say she is hungry."

"Babe, you know where your stuff is," Puck sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I made Sara promise not to eat your ice cream anymore."

"I don't want ice cream."

"What do you want?"

"Ummm, spaghetti…and syrup."

"Quinn, that's gross."

"I can't help it," she practically whined and he quickly realized that she was serious.

"I don't think we have either of those things in the house, sorry."

"Maybe…we could go get some?"

He could tell that she wasn't going to give up anytime soon so he check his phone for the time, groaning when he saw that it was past two in the morning. He glanced up at her, which was a mistake because it only took one look from her pleading eyes for him to be completely done in.

"Alright" he sighed. "I'll be back soon."

"I'll come with you."

"That's OK. It's cold as hell outside. Just stay here."

"I wasn't asking to go with you," she said, standing from the bed. "I was telling you that I'm going with you."

The Super Wal-Mart was the only place in town that was open 24/7 on Christmas Eve so Puck drove his truck over there, being extra careful on some of the snow-covered roads. He might have been tired as hell, but Quinn seemed to be wide awake as she sang along to the songs on the radio. Regardless of how he felt about the amount of sleep he was missing out on, she still managed to put him in a pretty good mood. The night was bitterly cold and his truck was pretty slow to heat up so Puck was thankful that the ride was only a little under ten minutes long. It came as no surprise to either of them that the store was practically deserted and they received some curious looks as Quinn led the way through the aisles, looking like she was on a mission. The spaghetti was easy enough to find, but the syrup proved to be a greater challenge. They were about to head down the pancake and breakfast aisle when something caught her eye and she stopped dead in her tracks, nearly causing Puck to run into her.

"What the fu-," he began to ask when he noticed the Ben and Jerry's ice cream display to his left. In a second he knew their search for syrup had come to an end as Quinn shoved the box of spaghetti back at him and marched over to the freezer section.

"I'm sorry," she said meekly once they were back inside the truck. She watched his jaw clench and unclench before he took a deep breath and visibly softened.

"It's OK. I'd rather have you eat ice cream that that nasty shit you were going to make anyway."

"But we have ice cream at home and I made you drive all the way out there at two in the morning in the freezing cold."

"Quinn, it's fine," he assured her.

It was just past three when they finally made it back up to bed. Puck was surprised that Quinn offered a bite of her ice cream to him because she was normally very possessive over anything to do with food.

"Thank you for my tree," she said as he pulled the covers up from the foot of the bed, making sure she was warm enough.

"You're welcome," he replied. "I'm glad you like it so much."

"Thank you for everything," she whispered and leaned over to kiss him lightly on the cheek.

"Merry Christmas, Quinn."

XXXXX

"Quinn!" her mother's voice rang from the top of the stairs, jarring both of them from their memories. "I asked you who was at the door."

Puck was fully prepared for her to say no one, to hide him from her mom and shut the door in his face with an apologetic look, but she didn't do any of those things. Instead, she took his hand and pulled him into the warm house with a smile.

"It's Puck," she called back to her mother. "He stopped by to bring me a Christmas present."