A/N - Hi again. I am kind of surprised I am posting so soon after ending my other stories but I guess Faberry keeps pulling me back. When I got sick recently and listened to Coldplay's entire oeuvre, I realized every song could relate to them anyway and decided to write the highschool fic I always wanted. Hope you like it.

The Coldplay Anthology

Yellow

I drew a line

I drew a line for you

Oh, what a thing to do

Coldplay

"What the fuc.." Puck glances at Rachel at least looking a bit contrite before continuing, "…Hell is she doing?" his voice is part incredulous and part scared as his eyes are trained on the small figure currently trying to scale the fence protecting the back door of Big Al's Liquor and Gun store. The anemic spotlight bathes her silhouette in yellow and Rachel swears she can tell just how sad Quinn is, just from the way she moves.

But she is still distracted by Puck's words and tone. "Noah, first of all, language!" Rachel's eyes are trained on Quinn as well, her hand already on the handle of the door. "We have to stop her." Her words flow out as she scrambles from the car, only to be stopped when she feels Puck's hand on her forearm.

"Whoa there, where do you think you're going? You said only surveillance, nothing else. The last time you tried to approach her, Mack hit you. Hell!" This time he does ignore her glare, "Rachel, she's not Quinn anymore. Maybe you should just go home."

Rachel had been somewhat surprised when Puck had agreed almost immediately when she asked him to accompany her on this stakeout. Initially she figured he was horny again and just wanted to get in her pants knowing that she had finally succumbed to Finn's charms and they had slept together the night they lost their Nationals slot. It had been a spur of the moment decision. Rachel thought that the act would augment their relationship but physical connection just never translated into anything more.

And luckily for her, Noah wasn't looking for that. He had looked worried and tired and after a bit of prodding, she understood that he had taken it upon himself to look out for Quinn in his own way. Be it, ensuring no one disturbed her under the bleachers, to watching her at night, if he knew she was going to do something stupid.

Ever since that first week of school where she had tried to get Quinn to come back to Glee, Rachel too had tried to keep a lookout for Quinn. Always disappointed when she noted Quinn skipping another one of the few classes they shared together and hoping that she wasn't trying to flunk out.

During her free period, she would loiter by the South side entrance to the school because it was the door most often used to get to the bleachers. Rachel never questioned why she felt compelled to just see Quinn. They never talked, just passing each other by, only sometimes making eye contact. But those instances made her feel that Quinn understood she was there for her, if she ever needed her.

And Rachel adamantly refused to question why she felt the impetus to just have that small measure of interaction with Quinn. She put it down to being a Good Samaritan as much as accepting that she was predisposed to worrying about any of the other Glee members if they looked so sad all the time. She didn't want to admit that what she was doing just made her seem more pitiable than her previous constant need for approval from her fellow Glee clubbers.

She knew what was pushing her and that feeling she would get in the pit of her belly each time she saw Quinn even remotely looking her way. Or when she'd spy Quinn staring at her when she sang in Glee. Rachel just could never really understanding why she could see such naked emotion from Quinn only at those fleeting moments and never anywhere else despite her always looking out for them.

It was funny because on the outside, Quinn didn't look sad. In fact, she looked scary and snarly and at times a bit unwashed. But Rachel always saw more that what was on the outside. With Quinn, it was always her eyes that completely gave her away. And Quinn's eyes used to sparkle.

Even when she had been pregnant and had felt abandoned and alone, Quinn still never gave up. She had bouts of melancholy but nowhere near as pervasive as they seemed now. Every time she saw Quinn, Rachel felt helpless and so very sad like Quinn's emotions were so raw and powerful that they could traverse the distance and affect her so acutely.

So she pulls her hand from Puck's grasp, "She's still Quinn and I can't go home." Rachel walks towards the back of the store, not really sure of what she wanted to do and still wary of running into one of the skanks.

Puck had been right to worry about her. She hadn't expected Mack to hit her when she had gone looking for Quinn again, the second week of school. Quinn hadn't been there and Rachel thought nothing of turning around to perhaps go to the library or the auditorium to practice. The blow from Mack had knocked her to the ground and the pain almost blinding that she thought she had blacked out for a few seconds.

Only to come to and hear Puck's confrontational voice threatening Mack if she ever touched his fellow Jew again. He had swept her up, his arms such a contrast from the hard dirt, his voice soothing even in her dazed state. He hadn't shouted at her, which she appreciated although he did warn her to stay away because he couldn't look out for both of them.

It had taken her two days to finally realize that he had been looking out for Quinn as well and it had taken her three weeks to work up the courage to ask him to join forces and try and help Quinn together. Her bruise had faded then but the memory of the pain she felt lingered, mixing with the ache she felt in her belly, each time she saw Quinn strutting down the halls looking belligerent and alone.

"What do you think she's doing?" her voice hopeful even as she turns to look at Puck and sees the expression on his face. "Maybe she's meeting someone?" the tiny shred of hope that Quinn was not being reckless completely disappearing as she hears the shrill alarm followed by the sound of a gunshot.

She runs towards the fence, actually ignoring Puck's expletive laden tirade as he runs behind her. In fact, she has a few choice words of her own when she sees the back door to the store slam open spilling light and a disheveled Quinn out, to her utmost relief.

Puck takes a running leap and jumps half way up the fence, taking an additional few seconds before he's up and over. He does not glance back, thinking that there was no way Rachel as diminutive as she was, could do the same. Except he's never seen her in ballet class, the height of her side leaps eclipsing most other students.

She follows Puck's move, jumping up as she anchors her fingers on the chain link fence. She does not see the barbwire at the top until it cuts into the back of her knee as she propels herself over.

The pain is fleeting and she pays it no heed because she's focused on Quinn prone on the ground, suffused by yellow light, as she clutches the side of her stomach, tears coursing down her face.

Puck's already by her side and Rachel can hear him trying to get Quinn to stand up even as the sound of shouting and threats of calling the police emanate from inside the store.

"Quinn, we have to go." He tugging at her hand accompanies the urgency in his voice.

"You have to carry her." Rachel's instructions finally getting through as Puck scoops Quinn up like he once did for Rachel, before heading back to the fence.

"Put her in a fireman's carry and you need to climb back over." Rachel's further words, anchoring him and preventing him from panicking any further as he does what she says and slings Quinn over his shoulder, thankful that the ex blonde, now pink haired wild child was not fighting back and almost docile.

He takes a chance and jumps from the top of the fence, holding tightly on to Quinn before turning, expecting to see Rachel behind him once again. Only she's still on the other end of the fence, in fact walking towards the open door. Like a lamb to the slaughter and it's that very thought that causes him to call out.

"Rach. Get over here now!" His words pushed out through gritted teeth because he has an inkling as to what she wants to do and does not approve in any way or form even if he knows it will save Quinn. "Dammit, just get over here, you don't have to-"

He wants to shout when he sees the large beefy hand grab at Rachel, pulling her into the store, the door shutting loudly even before Rachel can finish her yelp of surprise.

He backs away towards his car and only then does Quinn react as she tries to twist her body and get away from his hold. It just makes him hold tighter, his hand pressing into her side and it's only her loud hiss of pain that makes him stop. He quickly unlocks the back door of his car and pushes her inside.

"What the hell are you doing?" She literally snarls the words even as she tries to kick out at him. He notices the blood seeping at her side and he feels like crying even as he realizes that Rachel was wrong. The Quinn they knew didn't seem to exist anymore.

"Saving your ungrateful skanky ass, you.." He wants to call her names and highlight that Rachel Berry, the one person she had tortured and ridiculed throughout high school had just sacrificed herself.

Except, that point becomes so obviously clear when he hears sirens in the distance and his eyes finally meet Quinn's. It's so fast that he can't be totally sure but its then that he finally sees a spark of remorse and recognition in those bloodshot hazel eyes.

"Fuc…Damn." Rachel's not there but in deference, he cannot curse as he slams the back door and hurries to the driver side, praying that his engine does not fail him as he turns the key in the ignition.

"You're leaving her?" The sound of Quinn's voice at odds with her words because she sounds incredulous.

Puck slams his hands on the driving wheel, the pain reverberating up his arms but it's enough to prevent him from reaching over the front seat and smacking Quinn in the face. He knows he would never be able to actually do it even if he feels with all his being that for once, she did deserve to have someone literally knock some sense into her.

"She gave herself up for you. If I drop your good for nothing ass off at the front door of Al's, and god help me, I truly want to. Then she'd still be in trouble for nothing." He sees her swallow at his words and knows that she realizes he's just inferred that she was nothing.

"I'll drop you off wherever and then I'll…" he does not know what exactly he could do but he won't abandon Rachel even if he needed to confess to whatever Quinn had done and take the blame himself.

"Her dads…" He puts the car in drive and eases back onto the road, as he looks in the rear view mirror, waiting for Quinn to finish her sentence.

"Call her dads, I think one of them is a lawyer. Hiram Berry..Maybe..."

Puck nods as he turns on his headlights, not wanting to get pulled over and have to explain the bleeding would be felon sitting in his back seat.

"Are you ok?" his gruff voice highlighting how worried he is about Rachel and how much he still cares for Quinn even if he adamantly refuses to admit it.

He sees her wince as her hand goes to her side. She looks down at her hand and he can tell that it's coated with blood, from the way her face goes pale.

"Rachel's other dad is a doctor, I think. Dermatologist. Like a surgeon or something…maybe..I…" He feels lost but Rachel's not there and Quinn's hurt.

"That's a skin doctor. But he'll be able to help." She's in pain but she won't show it. However, Puck could always read her as she feels the car accelerate because he knows she may not be conscious for much longer.

He's attention is evenly split between the wreck of a girl in his back seat and the girl he left behind. Rachel never really asked him for much. In the beginning, he was her avenue to making Finn jealous. But then a weird thing happened wherein he found himself protective of the tiny would be diva and she found herself trusting him so much so that he would be the only one she'd tell her secrets and fears to.

The development of that relationship so gradual that he only realized it when one day, she had come to school looking all hot and oh so very sexy and the only thing he felt was a need to slap Finn and a few of the other jocks who had looked at her as if she had been a piece of premium steak.

He had also refrained from making any comments, not even winking at her, instead he had offered her his letterman and kept an eye on her the whole day, just in case.

And he could say the same about Quinn. She definitely didn't expect anything of him, the minute the both of them had signed the papers for Beth's adoption. But he had carried his Jewish guilt with him, balled up tight in the middle of his gut. Always there, a reminder of what he had done to Quinn.

He had thought that she had weathered the bump so much better than him most of junior year. Her cracks really only showing towards the year-end and he thought it had finally culminated in her cutting her hair.

Summer had come around and his pool cleaning business had taken up so much of his time. He thought he had seen a glimpse of her, all pink hair and attitude, hanging off some middle-aged dude's arm. But he put it down to too much sun, sangria and spending most of the afternoon bedding the mom of one of his juvie cellmates. It had been one part revenge and one part a need to prove that he was still a stud.

He finally ignores the speed limit when he notices that Quinn has finally passed out and he does not take his foot off the accelerator until he finally screeches to a stop right in front of Rachel's house, thankful that the lights inside were blazing.

End Part 1

So as always, my question is would you like me to continue?